Canada, Japan fund vocational training for youths in Yobe

From Uche Uche, Damaturu

Four hundred and fifty youths selected from two local governments in Yobe State were yesterday screened and sent to training centers to acquire vocational skills.
The program was organized under the UNDP Integrated Community Stabilization Project in the state Technical College through the state Emergency Management Agency, with beneficiaries drawn from the two local governments of Gujba and Gulani that were mostly affected by Boko Haram insurgency in the state.
The trainees, made up of males and females, who will undergo training in different vocational trades were, after a flag off ceremony conveyed to the training centers in four local governments of Potiskum, Damaturu, Gashua, and Geidam.
Speaking during the flag off ceremony which took place at the 27th August stadium in Damaturu the state capital, the executive Secretary,
Yobe state science and technical schools board, Alh. Musa Abdulsalam, while commending the state government for organizing the training program, in collaboration with the UNDP, through the state emergency management agency, also commended the Japan and Canada governments for rendering such assistance to prepare the youths for a self-reliant life that, according to him, will benefit, not only the trainees, but their immediate communities, the state and the country and at large.
Also speaking during the occasion, the head of UNDP office, Mizuhu Yohoi, urged the beneficiaries of the training to be focused in what they would be taught as the opportunity it would offer them would open them up to new ideas and for them also to be creative from what they would learn.
The two governments of Japan and Canada provided funding for the training program.