A call has gone out to private organisations to partner with the Lagos State Government in its drive to bridge the unemployment rates in the State and also increase the chances of gainful job opportunities for job seekers.
The Honourable Commissioner for Wealth Creation and Employment, Mrs. Yetunde Arobieke made the call on Wednesday during a stakeholders’ meeting held at Ikeja with recruitment experts on ways to partner with the government to ensure that unemployed youths are gainfully employed in the State.
The Commissioner noted that the meeting was organised at the behest of the Lagos State Ministry of Wealth Creation and Employment, as one of the strategists being used by the government to solve the rate of unemployment in the State, leveraging on the expertise of recruitment agencies to achieve the collective goal of job creation and work placement as they know where the job opportunities are.
According to her, “We are looking at ways outside what the government can do to solve the unemployment issue, therefore, we need to talk to partners, to experts in the recruitment field on ways to collaborate to solve the unemployment surge and find how we can put graduates in the employment bracket”.
Arobieke explained that despite the high rate of unemployment in the country, there are still vacant positions yet to be filled due to the perception that most graduates are unemployable, adding that this could be linked to job seekers’ lack of employability skills, the mismatch between demand for labour and the ability of applicants and outdated school curricula which lack entrepreneurship and employability skills.
Maintaining that the meeting was to complement the goals of the five job registration/labour exchange centres in each division of the State, Mrs. Arobieke said it the interactive session also aimed at enhancing the graduate internship programme, employability skills training and mentorship programme organised by the State Government.
She expressed the hope that deliberation would continue to engender a professional network between the Ministry and recruitment experts until the margin between the employed and unemployed is drastically bridged.
While highlighting the efforts by the present administration towards addressing the plight of the unemployed in Lagos, the Commissioner commended Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu for his commitment and support in ensuring that unemployed youths are gainfully engaged for sustainable livelihood, which was underscored by the recent approval of 2,000 job seekers for internship programmes at corporate organisations where the government will be paying their allowances for six months.
The stakeholders’ meeting with the theme “Partnering for Success, Adapting Internship and Job Placement Practices for Post COVID-19 Reality” later went into plenary sessions moderated by Mrs. Titi Akisanya, a leading recruitment consultant/expert.
