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Nigerian Government to Recruit 600,000 Graduates in Various Fields

Earlier this week I came across a really encouraging article on AllAfrica that discussed a government-led employment programme created for graduates. The scheme, which will offer work to close to 600,000 graduates across various fields, includes a new internet portal named N-Power that will connect Nigerian job seekers with opportunities and training.

N-Power

As part of President Muhammadu Buhari’s Social Investment Programme, N-Power is split into categories targeted at connecting and training graduates in their relevant fields. It is predicted that this move will enhance their graduates’ skills all while improving the wider employment climate.

The Teacher Corps – nicknamed N-Power Teach — is one of the scheme’s three direct job creation and training programmes. The Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande, stated that the scheme which will last for two years, will offer paid training to the 500,000 soon-to-be teachers.

The Buhari administration reported that the scheme “is an invaluable opportunity” for Nigerian graduates who can now “make immense economic and social contributions to the nation” while enhancing their skills. The scheme has also been introduced to improve the overall standard of teaching in public schools.

Elsewhere in the scheme, we have N-Power Knowledge which will train 25,000 Nigerians in the area of technology and N-Power Build, which will train another 75,000 in the areas of “building services, construction, utilities, hospitality and catering, automotive vocations, aluminium and gas services.”

N-Power Build has been designed around the premise of having a “well-trained and highly skilled youth population” as their “presence [in] any economy [will have a] direct impact on entrepreneurship/wealth creation, which in turn leads to a decline in unemployment.”

The N-Power Knowledge scheme is split into distinct categories: Creative and Technology. Around 5000 graduates will be trained in Animation, Graphic Design, Post-Production and Scriptwriting, all of which fall into the Creative category.

N-Power Knowledge’s Technology category is also split into two subdivisions: hardware and software. In the proposed programmes, 10,000 graduates will be trained in these areas. Software students will receive training in software development, including web design while hardware students will be taught aspects including how to repair, maintain and assemble mobile phones, tablets, computers and other devices.

Investing in the Future

Akande continues that “persons enlisted under the scheme will gain work experience and acquire key competencies” through “academic and non-academic capacity building programmes” that will “improve their competitiveness in the workplace.” He also goes on to explain that each student will be equipped with devices that “will come loaded with knowledge-oriented applications and software that will enable them acquire the skills and capacity.”

The presence of the word ‘power’ in the scheme’s title is very apt, as it is certainly giving Nigeria’s unemployed graduates the opportunity to not just progress their own futures, but to improve the country’s overall economy as well.

While this programme is only open to Nigerians right now, Gradlink’s website focuses on connecting African talent with the best employers in the country. We work with companies such as Safaricom, PwC, Airtel, KPMG, Standard Chartered and many more. Why not come and see what opportunities we have today?