FUDMA introduces entrepreneurship skills training for students, staff

FUDMA introduces entrepreneurship skills training for students, staff

The Vice Chancellor, Federal University Dutsin-Ma (FUDMA), Professor Mohammed Khalid Othman, says the university will soon commence entrepreneurship training for staff and students of the university.

Prof. Othman said the training would be an opportunity for members of staff to acquire entrepreneurial skills alongside their official obligations, thereby remedying the economic challenges affecting them.

He disclosed that the university management would allocate some hours for the staff to be attending the entrepreneurship training to acquire skills that would augment their income.

The Vice Chancellor also pledged to be organising entrepreneurship training sessions for students during holidays to ensure that they acquire practical skills without disrupting their studies.

Director, Entrepreneurship Development Centre, Dr. Umar Mamman (1st right), showcasing the bakery product to the VC, Prof. M.K. Othman (middle) & the DVC, Academics, Prof. A.S. Suleiman

“The current employment environment requires universities to go beyond conventional academic training by equipping students with entrepreneurial skills to make them productive as government employment opportunities continue to dwindle,” he said.

The Vice-Chancellor, who announced this while commissioning Flex/Printing, Bakery, Tailoring and Hair-Making and Dressing operational units of the University’s Entrepreneurship Development Centre, said the hallmark development was to enhance the comfort of members of the university and host community.

“The establishment of the units marked the implementation of first phase of the entrepreneurship center’s development plan, which is “consistent with the efforts of the university to instill entrepreneurial skills to its students to enable them face whatever socio-economic challenges they may faced after graduation, thus becoming self-reliant.

“The government is doing its best to ensure that citizens have better living by giving them opportunities for self or public employment, but the burden on government is too much and can be complemented with entrepreneurship skills to the students to make them independent and self employed without necessarily relying on white collar jobs”, Prof. Othman stated.

He said that entrepreneurship has always been an area of personal interest to him, adding that he was surprised upon assuming office to discover a number of training equipment for the Entrepreneurship Development Centre, lying idle.

Some staff of the Tailoring Unit, Entrepreneurship Development Centre, at work

The Vice-Chancellor said more of the training equipment lying idle would be deployed for  entrepreneurial skills training for the staff and students.

Earlier, the Director of the Entrepreneurship Development Centre, Dr. Umar Mamman said he discovered that 75 per cent of the items kept in the university’s store lying idle were for the entrepreneurship centre.

He said he had to deploy a significant number of the equipment from the store for the training of students and the subsequent establishment of the four units commissioned by the Vice Chancellor.

He said the development has activated some inactive resources for the overall benefit of members of the university and its host community.

Dr. Umar assured that the centre would not only equip the university’s teeming students with skills to venture into lucrative and productive enterprises but also generate employment, provide affordable services, and enhance internally generated revenue.