Launching YIEE's Skill Up Program
Guests
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dino Corell - Employment Officer @ILO
Emmanuel Emechete - Regional Focal Point West and Central Africa Decent Work and Economic Growth @UN MGCY
Ankur Sinha - Engineering Leader @Google (Hiring Software Engineers)
Summary
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Skill-Up Program aims at training and providing opportunities for 250, 000 youths in Nigeria and beyond by 2030.
YIEE will be training youths across Africa with digital skills in order to ensure they are prepared for the 140 million new jobs predicted by World Economic Forum to be created worldwide by 2025.
Background
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One-third of the working-age population in low- and middle-income countries lack the basic skills required to get quality jobs, leaving them unable to achieve their full productive potential and limiting economic investment and growth.
The challenge is further exacerbated by a rapidly changing global economy that increasingly requires workers to be innovative, flexible and adaptive. According to World Bank calculations, more than two billion working-age adults are not equipped with the most essential literacy skills required by employers. Among young adults under the age of 25, the number is about 420 million worldwide.
Employers across Africa note skill gaps as a major constraint to their ability to compete in the global digital economy. A shortage of technical talent impedes productivity and innovation in African businesses. Technological adoption and innovation depend on tech-savvy skills to help drive innovation. Enrollment in education has increased in Africa, but basic numeracy and literacy indicators remain low.
The COVID-19 economic shock has made the skills gap broader and the need to close it more urgent,” the World Economic Forum recently said.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), it was recently said that the number of jobless individuals in Nigeria is 80,291,893. Of this number, the youths (those within the age bracket of 25-34) were highest, with 23,328,460 or 29.1% of the labour force. This is the estimated number of persons within the working population, that are available and willing to work.
Many business leaders continue to center the problem with labor markets on “unqualified” individuals without the right skills.
Let us get #skillup together.
#skillupprogram #yiee #launch