Lagos Begins Entrepreneurship Courses for Students in Eight Tertiary Institutions

As part of the planned reopening of schools, the Lagos State Government has asked students in pre-final and final levels in eight tertiary institutions to enroll in entrepreneurship, employability and basic digital skills courses required for the workplace.

The programme is an initiative of the State Ministry of Education and is supervised by the Special Adviser to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Education, Mr. Tokunbo Wahab, who in a statement, urged students to access the required documentation at ‘Jobs Initiative Lagos’ (www.jobsinlagos.ng).

Wahab said: “This initiative will see to the complementary training of students in their ultimate and penultimate year in entrepreneurship, employability and basic digital skills required for the workplace. The essence of the programme is to account for the documented gaps in current curriculum that bedevils the employment market and to increase labour employability of these graduates.”

He said candidates who complete the programme would get “an opportunity to be featured on a jobs portal from where partner corporate organisations can select fresh graduates for recruitment.

“This initiative will run alongside a more robust digital skills campaign ‘Digital Skills Initiative Lagos’ (www.dsilagos.ng) aimed at empowering over one million young people in the state by 2023 with digital skills, which will invariably position Lagos as the Tech Hub of Africa.”

Also, he said students in secondary schools in Lagos would have access to well-trained instructors, while those out of school would access digital skills training and various internship opportunities as they complete the programmes.

The projects, he said are being coordinated by LoftyInc Allied Partners Limited – an innovation development company that develops start-up teams, manages innovation programmes and facilitates impact projects in West Africa.
LoftyInc is in partnership with Microsoft, VMware’s IT Academy, Wennovation Hub, LoftyInc Capital Management and a host of other corporates.

The special adviser said the first phase of ‘Jobs Initiatives Lagos’ began in June and would continue over the next four months, leveraging a virtual learning platform, while the ‘Digital Skills Initiative Lagos’, would commence virtually until the ease of the lockdown necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wahab said the two programmes are in sync with the THEMES Agenda of Governor Sanwo-olu in the state, wherein education is a key pillar with multiplier effect of human capital development.