THE FUTURE PROJECT, JOBBERMAN, PARTNER FOR INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITY CREATION
The Future Project (TFP) in partnership with Nigeria’s No. 1 recruitment website, Jobberman.com has formally announced its employability programme – Intern4Jobs, which will up-skill and connect at least 100,000 young West Africans to jobs and job opportunities through internships over the next two years.
The Intern4Jobs aims to empower young people with the practical skills they need to get jobs through its network of Internship Partners who take on young graduates into their firms and train them on the job for a period of 3 – 6 months.
The on-the-job training is structured to ensure that the interns are employable and are able to take up jobs within a month of their training being concluded – through a structured curriculum and a network of Mentor4Jobs and Coach4Jobs to closely supervise them.
“There are 64 million young people in Nigeria (under-35). Over 54 percent of that population is unemployed according to the National Bureau of Statistics,” said Ayodeji Adewunmi, Jobberman’s CEO.
“Over 200,000 of young people come out of school each year. Over 90 percent of them are unable to find jobs. For a country already suffering violence, crime and acute insecurity, this is a crisis. And all hands need to be on deck to own the solution to this problem.”
Mfon Ekpo, Chief Operating Officer of TFP and a Fellow of President Obama’s Mandela Washington Fellowship, added that “Young people are mostly tired of motivation and nice words – they want to see the opportunities that exist and take advantage of them.”
“We at The Future Project have always been conscious of this, hence we launched The Future Enterprise Support Scheme (TFESS) in 2008 to help young people be up-skilled/trained, learn on the job and be supported to grow in their careers. Over 40% of our interns from 2008 – 2010 were connected with jobs in that period.”
To apply, applicants must be aged between 18 and 35 and must have graduated from a tertiary institution. They are also to send their CVs and a 250-word cover letter on ‘Why I am ready for a job’ to intern4jobs@thefutureafrica.com with the title, ‘Intern4Jobs-Application’.
This is a very welcome development. Joberman is a good example of what we can achieve when we start thinking outside the box. The platform has taken Nigeria and now the world by storm.
I hope very soon many job and skills acquisition opportunities will be readily available not just for graduates alone but for every adult ready to secure a good job.