The Enugu State University of Science and Technology, ESUT, and the state’s Ministry of Youths and Sports, on Thursday, reached an agreement to partner on youths entrepreneurial training in the state.
The Commissioner of Youths and Sports in Enugu State, Lloyd Ekweremadu, made this known at the permanent site of ESUT in Agbani, Nkanu West Local Government Area of Enugu State after a meeting with the University Management.
Ekweremadu explained that ESUT, being a reputable tertiary institution in the state would provide human and technical manpower needed for the training as well as the certification of the trainees.
“At the Ministry of Youths and Sports, we are saddled with the development of Youths in the state, and having looked at the economy and the sort of state that His Excellency, the Governor of Enugu State, Barr. Peter Mbah, wants to bequeath to the youths of the state, it is therefore very important that we key into entrepreneurship in a productive manner.
We thought that one of the ways would be to key into entrepreneurship training programme for the youths of Enugu State.
“Also, the Governor is promoting an economy of creativity and innovation which ultimately finds its place in the world of entrepreneurship. We are trying to create an economy of more entrepreneurs which would benefit the individuals that would go into it and equally boost the GDP of the state.
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“I seek a partnership opportunity with the University, the idea is that we at the Ministry would work out the financing, whereas, the University being a reputable Institution would provide us with the technical aspect of it. We want to train young people on various areas of entrepreneurship, starting from ideation, to preparation of business plan to wooing of investors , including presentation and running of a business, whether small, medium or large,” he said.
In his reaction, the Vice Chancellor of ESUT, Professor Aloysius-Michaels Okolie, lauded the initiative of the Ministry, stressing that entrepreneurship is the way to go.
Professor Okolie further explained that the University had already set everything in place to give skills development of students 60% priority while certification takes 40%.
“The ESUT Management is determined to ensure that its graduands are equipped with relevant skills which would prepare them to meet up with job demands of the fourth industrial revolution, which also would equip them to be self-reliant upon graduation.
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“To achieve that, we are going beyond teaching entrepreneurship and have added some soft skills such as AI, Internet of Things among others.
“We have bought over Afrihub and are already getting some partners that would collaborate with ESUT to install necessary softwares for the training of students and the larger community as a whole,” he said.
The VC stated that ESUT Management has discovered a lacuna in the current academic curriculum and system of education in Nigeria which it has started addressing.
He equally said that the University named a street after Senator Ike Ekweremadu because of his landmark political achievements in Enugu State and Nigeria at large, adding that the University would be glad to key into the entrepreneurship plans of the Ministry of Youths and Sports to ensure sustainable human capital and economic development in the state.
