Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Partners with Tech4Dev and Microsoft to Upskill 36,000 Youths in One Year

Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Partners with Tech4Dev and Microsoft to Upskill 36,000 Youths in One Year

To minimize the rate of unemployment in Nigeria, the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development (FMYSD) said it has partnered with the Technology for Social Change and Development (Tech4Dev) a Microsoft initiative to train 36,000 young Nigerians in digital skills over the next year.

Adding that the unemployment rate in Nigeria has not decreased significantly as expected.

This information was disclosed on their official instagram handle on June 22nd, 2021.

According to Nigerian Methodology Reports, in the fourth quarter of 2020 alone, over 33 per cent of the labour force became unemployed, primarily due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In alignment with her commitment to creating access to decent work and entrepreneurship opportunities and platforms for Africans through digital skills empowerment and advocacy, the Ministry of Youth and Sports has partnered with Microsoft and Technology for Social Change and Development initiative (Tech4Dev) to upskill 36,000 young Nigerians in digital skills over the next one year through the Emerging Markets Model Initiative (EMMI).

Emerging Markets Model Initiative (EMMI) which is a multi-year, multi-stakeholder, private-public, non-profit partnership designed by Microsoft to build the capacity of key government Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs).

The above Initiative aims to offer sustainable, scalable, reskilling and employment services aligned to the local labour markets through providing access to digital skills training from digital literacy to advanced training for young people in Nigeria between the ages of 16-35 years.

Also, the initiative targets 36,000 youths over one year, using a virtual and physical learning approach, in various training centres across Nigeria.

This would be achieved through multi-year collaboration with four strategic Federal Government Ministries and 12 state governments.

Honourable Minister @HMSundayDare stated that "The greatest challenge of Youth development is hitting the critical mass increasing the number of those we can onboard to get the digital skills they need in an increasingly technology driven world".

"We need to scale up the numbers whether it has to do with credit or digital training" he added.

The Minister also added that With this training, the country aimed to achieve 36,000 youths in one year which would aid in the reduction of unemployment in our country Nigeria.