Following the lockdown as a result of the spread of COVID-19, a record 3,000 youths have been trained in various Digital Training Skiils by the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development.
The Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Mr. Sunday Dare expressed satisfaction that more than 3,000 young Nigerians have so far taken advantage of the ministry’s online training and attained competency badges under the DY.ng initiative.
The Minister stated this during the maiden Digital Conversations with Nigerian youth hang out on Zoom.
The programme focused on digital skills prospects for Nigerian youth.
Dare said the training, a product of the ministry’s collaboration with IBM, has been hugely beneficial to a large number of Nigerian youth who have taken their time to tap into the free online courses during the COVID-19 shutdown to acquire skills in areas of their choice.
More youth have continued to sign up for the training, which comnenced two weeks ago when the COVID-19 pandemic invaded Nigeria, even as it crossed the 3,000 beneficiaries milestone.
The Minster urged those that are yet to sign up for the free training to tap into the opportunity during this period.
“The badges could add to your curriculum vitae and serve as an added advantage in the job and entrepreneurial market, which will give our youth what we call AA – Added Advantage – to their degrees or diplomas.”
The DY.ng initiative comprises both online and offline training in a wide range of areas such as Web Development, Cloud, Blockchain, Enterprise Design Thinking, Data Science and Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Coding, Internet of Things, APIs and Microservices, Containers and Kubernetes, Cybersecurity, Quantum Computing, DevOps amongst others.
The courses are to be delivered to over 500,000 Nigerian youth in various centres across the country over the next two years but due to the national shutdown, only the online aspects are currently accessible .
Meanwhile, the ministry will continue to work with other strategic partners globally to deliver industry desired skills and training opportunities to the youth through the DEEL Program, which was launched at The Ministry’s Africa Youth Day celebration in Abuja last year.
The DEEL program is set to equip the Nigerian youth with Digital Skills, Employability, Entrepreneurship and Leadership skills.
