by Omoleye Omoruyi
A Bill seeking to provide for free and compulsory acquisition of vocational skills by youth corps members has passed second reading in the Senate.
The Bill which is titled “A Bill for an Act to amend the National Youth Service Corps Act 2004”, is aimed at equipping corps members with entrepreneurial skills to help them after service year.
Sponsor of the Bill, Senator Stella Oduah, emphasised that the period of the NYSC is to prepare Nigerian youths to rediscover their passions, talents, and skills.
According to the Bill, the NYSC service year will now be split into two, with the first part to be directed towards gaining experience in the work environment while the second part would be geared towards free and compulsory acquisition of vocational skills.
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President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, urged his colleagues to remain committed to overhauling the NYSC that suit the present day Nigeria.
“When the NYSC was introduced, the focus was integration and strengthening of Nigeria’s unity but it is clear now that there is need to incorporate vocational skills acquisition to equip our young graduates for better service to the nation and to themselves. I thank Senator Stella Oduah for sponsoring this Bill,” Saraki said.
The new Bill is seeking to insert a new section 5 to provide for a compulsory vocational training for corps members.
Other goals and benefits of the Bill include, securing the future of corps members through the acquisition of relevant skills for business success, learning in a conducive environment with state of the art teaching materials to maximise the service year.
It would also provide access to several funding windows towards starting or improving one’s business, and learning to develop a winning, investor ready business plan, among others.
Omoleye Omoruyi… an apprentice web/game developer, novelist, sensitive to happenings in the world. Meet him @Lord_rickie on Twitter/Instagram
I strongly agree with this motion sicumded by stela oduah for NYSC skills aquisation
Fist of all, i thank Nigeria Senate for this amendment bill. The NYSC service as it is before, is nothing but a waste of time and energy. Now with the invention of vocational skill, i think the service year is going to be interesting than as it is before.But if i may suggest, the vocational skills should last for a minimum of 3 to 4 months in the camp, thereafter the corpers should be dismis with the one year allawee given to them, than wasting the entire year for teaching in schools.
this people are hell bent on making life miserable for youths. After graduation, we were mandated to do compulsory skill acquisition, we did. Now before you complete NYSC she wants to bring an absurd law. What’s the point and use of what was done in school? skills that you’ll learn and what you will earn will not be enough to take care of you, not to talk more of family while they are busy stealing millions. does this Stella even have any skills? How much input from Corp members did they get before wanting to do this.