President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday inaugurated a Presidential Jobs Board which has the duty to ensure the creation of at least three million jobs in the next one year.
The president told agencies of government responsible for training of young Nigerians to make sure that they don’t just train them only, but they must ensure that those trained are assisted to get employed by corporations and relevant organisations.
Speaking while inaugurating the board at the presidential villa yesterday evening, Jonathan charged departments and agencies of government that train people over the period, like SMEDAN, ITF, PDTF, NDE and NIMASA, among others, to train young men and women in acquiring different skills so that they can be self sufficient.
“There is a missing link, because there is a difference between training people to acquire skills and job creation. I have observed over a period that agencies of government are more interested in training. My conviction is that if you train 100 people and none of them is either self employed or employed by any corporation, that is a total waste. you are rather frustrating more people and probably increasing the number of criminals in the society.
“I always say that if you train a young man as a fitter and he has no job to do, he will use that skill to break into banks because you have trained him on how to handle iron and how to handle complicated locks.