Over 4,000 unemployed graduates were thrown into confusion on Thursday during the one-day media sensitization/firm and graduates job matching workshop held at the Hill Station Hotel in Jos, the Plateau State capital.
The youths came out in their thousands just to realize that the Subsidy Reinvestment Programme only provided 401 available SURE-P community service women and youth graduate internship scheme positions in Plateau State.
It was gathered that many who were contacted to be part of the programme through text messages were subsequently denied access to the venue on an account that they must produce the National Youth Service Corps discharge certificate before they would be allowed in.
Speaking at the event, a consultant, James Yakubu, said the programme is an interface between the employers and the employees.
Yakubu said it is aimed at equipping them on self employment after the one-year period.
He decried that the data base was overloaded so the ICT section had to reduce the number of internship to 401 for them to be accommodated in the handling of the project implementation units of the GIS.
According to him, the graduates will be receiving N30,000 every month for the one-year period, but the Federal Government is giving emphasis to skills acquisition and training that will make the graduates independent.
Yakubu explained that within the one year, the ministry has also developed a guide for internship for them to acquire practical skills that can help them fill the gap because most employers are complaining that the graduates lack experience.
However, one of the affected job seekers, Naalop Naapan, expressed sadness over the inability of the government to provide job opportunities for the teeming unemployed graduates.
Naapan said: “I received a text message to come for this programme only for me to be denied going in.
“I was told that until you have NYSC discharge certificate before you are allow inside.”
Giving an overview of the project, Barrister Audu Maikori, said the project was implemented by President Goodluck Jonathan, who constituted the SURE-P committee with 21 members following the mandate to mitigate the impact on partial petroleum subsidy removal on the population by laying a foundation for the successful development of national social safety.
Maikori added that it is to accelerate the economic transformation through investment in critical infrastructure projects so as to drive economic growth and achieve the vision 20-2020.
According to him, the Sure-P graduate internship programme is designed to primarily create temporary employment for the teeming unemployed graduates in the country.
He noted that the scheme is to reduce the number of unemployed graduates and enhance the employability of at least 50,000 unemployed graduates in the 36 states of the federation and in the FCT by the end 2015.
He said there are over 180,000 graduates who have registered on the platform across the federation, with over 7,000 firms signed up to take on interns.
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