Edo unveils paid Graduate Internship Programme, targets 250 youths in first phase

The Edo State Government through its job creation platform, EdoJobs, has concluded plans to launch the Edo Graduate Internship Programme (Edo-GIP), designed as a 6-month intensive paid internship with the aim of providing young people with access to work experience.

EdoJobs is an initiative of Governor Godwin Obaseki to create employment opportunities for 200,000 youths in the state. It has been at the forefront of skills training and jobs creation in the state, providing  myriad of job opportunities for youths.

Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Skills Development and Jobs Creation, Mrs. Ukinebo Dare, said “The EdoJobs Graduate Internship Programme (EDO-GIP) is a 6-month intensive internship (paid) and mentoring programme to give young people access to work experience and job opportunity with the potential to achieve a 70 per cent permanent employment rate.”

She said the programme is targeting 250 graduates in the first phase and is being run in partnership with Romanspage Global, a top Human Resource Consulting firm, to train and engage young graduates for the EdoJobs Graduate Internship Programme (EDO-GIP)

Noting that the programme will provide a foundation for beneficiaries to get employed or gain the right skills and mentoring to start their own businesses, she said, “EDO-GIP is aimed at providing opportunities for young graduates to explore their chosen career fields by assigning them to organisations (large corporations and SMEs) to learn the technical and practical skills required to launch into their desired career paths. At the end of the programme, participants would have acquired and developed transferable skills that would serve as an enviable foundation for building a successful career either as an employee or an entrepreneur.”

She said interns are needed in Marketing/Sales, Information Technology, Finance/Account, Administration, Front Desk/Customer Service, Human Resources, among others, adding that successful applicants will “gain invaluable work experience during internship; get paid while learning on the job and will be trained on workplace skills before deployment to organisation.”

Other benefits of the scheme, according to her, “are that beneficiaries will get valuable insights into business practices; explore their career path, have an edge in the job market and grow a network with professionals.”

She said the applicants must hold a minimum of Bachelor’s degree or Higher National Diploma (HND), must have completed National Youth Service Scheme (NYSC), reside in Edo State, must not be older than 30 years old, must be registered on the EdoJobs portal, show willingness to learn new skills and must be ready to contribute to the organisation they are deployed to.

She said application will commence from November 1, 2018 onwww.edojobs.edostate.gov.ng.