Addressing participants at the opening of the event on Friday, September 15, state Coordinator of NDE, Danjuma Shehu, said the programme is the federal government’s deliberate efforts through Directorate to reduce the over dependence of graduate youth on government job.

According to him, the Graduate Attachment Programme, (GAP), is targeted at improving the employability of graduate youth, impact relevant skills gaps and build a competent workforce to the unemployed of tertiary institutions.

“The objective of the GAP training is to improve the employability of youth, impact relevant skills gaps and build a competent workforce to the unemployed of tertiary institutions.

“The GAP is a social intervention programme designed to address graduate unemployed by providing transient jobs to unemployed youth graduate of tertiary institutions.

“We intend to retain the talents from the organisation where they serve, since the exposure allow the employers a full assessment of the intern’s job potentials.

“However, in achieving the training objectives and outcome, the right participating corporate organizations should be deliberately selected and interns position themselves to develop specific skills relevant to the available jobs, particularly gaining requisite practical experience, developing employability skills and up skilling core competencies on the job,” Shehu explained.

The state Coordinator also disclosed that the 75 unemployed graduates of tertiary institutions were selected across the 16 Local Government Areas of the state.

He noted that the training will last for a period of three months with a monthly stipend of N20,000 per participant.

Ms Esther Philibus, who spoke on behalf of other participants, thanked NDE for the gesture and pledged that they will make the Directorate proud by participating fully in the training to achieve the programme’s aim.