It is a project that focuses on making the primary, secondary and university students to be entrepreneurs, relevant and employable in the society.

The project exposes these students to the real practical aspects of their classroom learning.
My Skills for Change discovers the talent of the students, train them through several approaches and get them established.

It is a project that takes the school to industrial base system of professional training and learning through the parent-child approach.

Problem

The problem is that our youth are unemployable yet they are graduates of secondary schools and universities.Our secondary schools and universities are theoretically base and are not exposing these students to the real practices of what they learn in their classrooms thereby making our youths with no practical skills. The youth within the age of 5-25 are yet to be seen in business and social enterprises which has led to corruption and unemployment in my country.This is because our schools do not engage these students with the practical aspects of their learning.

Solution

My Skills for Change project is the solution to these problems. We have introduced many practical sessions into the school curriculum. On each of the subjects-Biology, Physics, Agricultural sciences, Chemistry etc taught in schools, we also give the students the opportunity to learn those practical skills attached to these subjects. With several collaborations and partnerships with industries/companies- Mobil, Shell, Chevron, Halliburton and the Federal Government of Nigeria, this project has been a great success. This is a project that is designed to equip the primary and secondary school students for a better future.The project is aim at exposing the students to the real practical world of what they are learning in their various classrooms. The project includes workshops seminar, training, industrial attachment, vocational skills, and midweek practical class sessions. It is designed to make sure that the students do not just learn only theory in their classes but to practice what they learn in their classrooms immediately after studies.We strongly believe that our students in this part of the world-Africa can do better when they are expose to what they learn in class practically.

Example

Using myself as a case study, I finished my secondary school without knowing some of the common engineering tools like the saw, hammer, spanners and nuts not until I was given the opportunity by a firm who recruited some school leavers for training. This exposure helped me a lot and I appreciated more about my field of study. Then I suggested to the management of the company to recruit more students from my school. It was a welcome idea that was implemented. The company requested that some sets of students should be sent for training on several occasions. And from statistics, the performance of these students was improved and more than 1,500 students were employed by the company. The above event led to the emergence of this project. we started in 2 primary and secondary schools in my village-Ibiaku Ntok Okpo and about 1000 students were involved in this training. some facilitators are also sent from different companies to assist in this training and 200 students are taken for industrial training/attachment every one by these companies.The project has improved the performance of many students thus making them employable and entrepreneurs and it is our desire to expand this initiative to other schools.

Marketplace

There has not been such project in our communities rather more schools has been established. so we believe that partnership and more similar projects can enhance effectively the aim of this project. other interventions has been made by the government to introduce skill acquisitions in schools but it usually do not achieve this purpose as the project often been abandoned by the government. It is our utmost desire and believe that this project is exceptional and will be effective to effect the change we need in our schools in Africa-Nigeria.