The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board has sponsored the training of many out-of-school teenage mothers in legal education and vocational skills acquisition in Bayelsa State.
It is being undertaken in synergy with StandUp for Women Society and NYSC Legal Aid Community Development Service.
Though more than 100 teenage mothers have been captured to undergo the skills acquisition training, the facilitators said they would begin with 20 in the first phase of the programme.
The 20 teenagers, selected from the rural communities in Yenagoa Local Government Area of the state, will undergo training in Fashion Design, Catering, Make-Up and Hair Dressing for three months at the Bayelsa State Institute of Tourism and Hospitality, Yenagoa.
Speaking on Tuesday at the flag-off ceremony at the BSITH, the Deputy Manager, Capacity Building, NCDMB, Timbiri Augustine, said the Board attached so much importance on training and human capital development hence the support for the training.
Augustine commended the stakeholders for initiating the training, noting that it was the first time, “this category of persons will be captured by the Board for skills acquisition training programme”.
He said: “We have noted that employment is limited but there is the entrepreneurship window that is open for all of us.
“There are only two ways to generate income either as a service provider or producer or both.
“This training will expose you to skills to become a service provider and a producer.
“We expect maximum commitments; you have a role to play.
“We are playing our own role, the trainers are expected to play their own role as you are also expected to play your own role and remain committed and align with our expectations.
“We want to thank the stakeholders involved in this training.
“NCDMB knows the importance of partnership, and collaboration is one of our key priorities.”
In his remarks, the Rector, BSITHI, Prof. Apuega Arikawie, commended the NCDMB for utilising the facilities offered by the Institute for its different trainings and for financing different training programmes in the Niger Delta and the country at large.
Arikawie said: “As a way to empowering teenage mothers to have a scheme for themselves to enable them to take care of the child, the NCDMB thought it wise to sponsor this particular programme.
“The programme will make them entrepreneurs and reduce criminality, poverty in the Niger Delta and other social vices bedevilling the Niger Delta.”
In her speech, Chairperson, SWS, Bayelsa State chapter, Eunice Nnachi, said the training programme was about social integration and giving hope to teenage mothers who had found themselves in that condition.
She added that the trainees would be given stipends and starter packs to enable them to become self reliant.
Nnachi noted that over one hundred teenage mothers had been captured and would undergo the skills acquisition training which would be carried out in different phases.
She added that arrangements had been put in place to ensure that the programme is well monitored and supervised.
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