The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) has offered 740 graduates opportunity for permanent jobs under its Graduate Attachment Programme (GAP).
Speaking at the flag-off of the programme in Abuja, the Director General of NDE, Abubakar Mohammed, said the programme provides a window of opportunity for fresh graduates to enter the employment arena.
He explained: "In October 2006, the NDE conceived the Graduate Attachment Programme and invited employers of labour to provide opportunities of attachment for fresh graduates in their companies as a way of fighting unemployment with its associated high noise level. GAP has a life of its own and means a lot to the Nigerian graduates who are victims of unemployment. To them, it symbolizes the feature that characterizes the unemployed graduates' world - the interval between the world of school and the world of work, empty interval between the world of unemployment and employment and that void that separates frustration and fulfilment."
Mohammed posited that GAP provides an opportunity for the beneficiaries to make him or herself indispensable to the employer through his or her contributions to the value chain while the employer closely watches him or her and evaluates his or her contributions within the period of attachment.
He listed the objectives of GAP to include providing the participants the psychological satisfaction of having a place to go to daily and something worthwhile to do; restore to the participants, a sense of dignity and self-worth that is usually threatened by prolonged period of unemployment; help the participants maintain the integrity of the quality of character and learning imparted at school but which is threatened by prolonged unemployment; give the participants the opportunity to prove self so that the organization may discover a valuable material worthy of retention; bridge the gap between classroom knowledge and the world of work; assist young graduates to acquire working experience and develop necessary skills that will make them employable through training at minimum costs for direct/self- employment; contribute to the salvaging of the national investment in education; to reduce the vulnerability of unemployed graduates and to sustain the critical manpower and capacity required for national development.
In his goodwill message, the Minister of Works, Mike Onolomemen, who lauded the initiative, described it as a journey that will enable the beneficiaries acquire necessary work skills.
He urged the beneficiaries to put in their best effort and assured them of space for them in their postings after the completion of the attachment programme.
The Abuja branch manager of Lead Assurance, Mr. Allan Olufade, said the company decided to participate in the programme because of it advantages it harbours.
He argued that the so-called "work experience" requirement demanded by employers as condition for employment even from fresh graduates would be bridged by the programme.
He added: "This is a unique programme because it provides work experience for fresh graduates. It appears to be a stopgap programme but the beneficiaries can also cite it as avenue for gathering experience. Besides that, I believe many of them will go ahead to get permanent jobs through this process. We in Lead Assurance also believe that Nigeria can collectively reduce unemployment if more employers get involved in this programme. Our participation is our modest way of contributing our quota towards the reduction of unemployment in Nigeria."
Source: Guardian