Three years after the flag-off of the Ford Foundation-funded Niger Delta Youth Empowerment Pathways , the Partnership Initiative for Niger Delta Development has wound up the project with a call to government and stakeholders to adopt training and utilisation models that focus on markets and demand.In 2017, the Ford Foundation and Partnership Initiative for Niger Delta commenced a unique skill training programme for some states in the Niger Delta.
It said the project, at its inception, aimed to train 4,500 vulnerable Niger Delta youth on market-relevant, demand-driven skills as well as soft skills, preparing them for formal employment, internship/apprenticeship, or entrepreneurship through business start-ups; modeling multiple pathways to employment.
“The region records some of the highest rates of unemployment in the country, higher than the national average. With the limited economic activities and other disruptions triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the country’s unemployment rate previously at an average of 23 percent spiked to 27.1 percent as at the second quarter of 2020 and according to the recent National Bureau of Statistics unemployment report, there has been a 6.
Emeka Elle, Project Lead of NYDC/PIND said NDYEP idea was to identify high demand skills, create the job readiness models that others can begin to learn from and implement on a larger skill.