The National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM) has revealed that it is set to share the outcomes of robust research it carried out on ‘Design and Impact of an Apprenticeship Based Entrepreneurship Intervention in Nigeria’.
The study – carried out in collaboration with the Centre for Gender and Social Policy Studies (CGSPS) of the Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Canada and the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) – is aimed at generating evidence in guiding policy and practice towards boosting decent youth employment in Nigeria (Africa), using NYSC’s skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) programme as a case study.
A statement by NACETEM’s public relations officer, Isaac Oluyi noted that youth unemployment remained one of Nigeria’s biggest challenges despite the latent potential for socio-economic growth that the country holds. To this end, there have been various attempts by individuals and private and public institutions to proffer a lasting solution to the menace. One of such is the National Youth Service Corps’ Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) programme.
“To strengthen entrepreneurial capabilities among young graduates in Nigeria, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), in collaboration with the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) introduced a hands-on entrepreneurship intervention known as Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) in 2012. This intervention targets fresh university graduates who are undergoing the mandatory one-year national service under the NYSC.
“The programme is designed to foster an apprenticeship-based, hands-on entrepreneurship training for young, educated Nigerians, as well as to [help them] overcome some of the limitations of previous interventions, including limited reach, impractical curricula and poor collaboration and cooperation amongst sectors.
“Due to the sheer size of Nigeria, the SAED initiative is arguably the largest apprenticeship-based intervention programme in sub-Saharan Africa. Currently, all claims of impact of the SAED initiative are anecdotal and almost entirely without empirical evidence. After 10 years of its operation, the SAED programme deserves a systematic assessment and evaluation to reveal the extent of its effectiveness and determine what needs to be added or changed in its design for better effectiveness,” it said.
This reason, the statement said, gave birth to the project, which is the first of its kind since the inception of the programme.
With the conclusion of the impact assessment, the two centres (NACETEM and CGSPS) are set to unveil the outcomes of their research to the public on August 18, 2022, in Abuja and, hereby, invite relevant stakeholders to be a part of this momentous workshop.
“Partners expected at this epoch-making event include the NYSC SAED, the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), Bank of Industry (BoI), Bank of Agriculture (BoA), SMEDAN, NUC, The Leventis Foundation, IDRC, UNIDO and other stakeholders who work in the youth employment and entrepreneurial space,” it added.
