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Lagos, Oracle Graduate Students in ICT Skills(AllAfrica Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) THE Lagos State government has graduated the first batch of 50 graduates under its Workforce Development Programme (WDP) designed to bridge the requisite information communication technology (ICT) skills gap between the university graduates and providing them with highly sought and marketable skills that will increase their employability while providing organisations in state with proven skilled workers that are essential to the success of any organisation. Speaking on the occasion, Head of Service, Lagos State, Mrs Olusuyi Williams said the initiative is trail blazer as other organizations have started borrowing a leaf from it, adding that Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAMN) and others are already looking to copy the novel to youth empowerment programme. According to her, it is one of those many laudable programmes initiated by Governor Babatunde Fashola to address in a sustainable manner, graduates' unemployment to reduce crime and improve the general living conditions of the people of the state. Williams said the governor has directed the Ministry of Science and Technology, along with allied agencies to engage original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) such Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco and others to develop programmes that will make training an important component of their activities, stressing that it will allow "our citizens to benefit from the state's engagement with all our ICT partners especially in the area of skill transfer to our teeming population of unemployed graduates." She said: "The Lagos State government has identified ICT as a sector with potential for high growth and employment generation and an area that can help in reducing the prevailing level of graduate unemployment with its attendant social ills. "I am glad to report that under the Human Capacity Initiative which we flagged off seven weeks ago, we have successfully completed training for over 45 lectures from universities, colleges of education as well as polytechnics in the state and over 76 employees of the state including unemployed graduates under the WDP Programme whose graduation ceremony we are doing today. "The students were trained in two critical areas of Oracle Database Administration and Oracle EBS Functional Financial Support Analyst. The training provided to the former, enables them to support database of the organization which you will agree with me is the heart of and soul of any establishment giving the fact that no organization today exist without some form of database or the other. The database administration skill allows them to support any database regardless of the platform. "The Oracle EBS Functional Analyst skill will enable them to support critical function such as payroll, procurement, account payable, receivable and general ledger. The training on both of the skills set were delivered using World Class Oracle Curriculum which makes today's graduate to be able to compete with their counterparts all over the world. This I am happy to report allows them to be employable not just in Nigeria but anywhere in the world with a median salary in hundreds of thousands of naira or over $75,000 with varied years of experience." She said as a demonstration of the support of his support to the WDP the governor has directed that some selected successful members of the graduating students should be absorbed into the Lagos State Civil Service on permanent basis while some others will be paid interns. In her welcome address, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Science and Technology, Mrs Nike Animashaun said the training which would have cost "an hiring company about $10,000 each is a worthwhile investment with the objective of offering the trainees highly sought-after skills, reducing operating expenses and graduate unemployment with its attendant social effects such as high incidence of crimes and social unrest. She said the 50 successful candidates under the WRP for recent graduates are the first batch. At the end of the initial phase, a total of 400 residents would have been trained while the next batch will start next month, Animashaun said. Copyright The Guardian. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). |