Federal government initiates internship programme for youths

By OKEY OBIOZO

It was an occasion that personified hope and resourcefulness for youths when Subsidy Re-investment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) decided to sensitize the media about one of their Social Safety Net components called- Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS).

The sensitization programme held on Wednesday, November 27, 2013 at Westtown Hotel, Ikeja, and Lagos State. The event was organized to formally present to the media who are seen as mutual partners and stakeholders in the successful actualization of the visions of SURE-P regarding youths development in Nigeria.

It will be recalled that the federal government of Nigeria in January 2012 partially removed petroleum subsidy. As a strategy in cushioning the effect of the withdrawal from the society, the administration of Goodluck Jonathan promised that the proceeds that will accrue from the removal will be re-invested in the development of both social infrastructures and human capacity development.

However, there was prolonged public outcry then over the wrong timing of the removal on one hand and how government cannot be trusted in the re-investment of the proceeds as they have promised because previous administrations failed to make good their promises when they embarked on similar mission.

In spite of the brouhaha, the president promised. “We have to show that we are committed to delivering on our promises in order to win back public confidence in our government.” That was what he ensured by instituting Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme as a body that will monitor the reinvestment programme, though to the distrust of teeming Nigerians that did not see any good that the programme could achieve except to serve the interest of those that instituted it.

Dr Christopher Kolade, CON and the former chairman of SURE-P while addressing Nigerians stated at the inauguration of the programme. “Our committee will offer probity, transparency and accountability. We are confident that our creator will bless our efforts as we seek to play our part in showing the world that Nigerians can, indeed live up to their image as good people, citizens of a great nation…Nothing less will be acceptable. Indeed Nigeria deserves nothing less.”

But to the dismay of Nigerians, it will be admitted that SURE-P is living up to its goals in its two components of implementation; Infrastructure Development projects and Social Safety Net project and agreeably, Graduate Internship Scheme is one of their laudable intervention method because of its focus on investing in the future of Nigeria.

In retrospect, the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Honorable Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala stated.”We face vulnerabilities from the challenges of youth unemployment in our country, in the light of this, it became imperative for us to focus on efforts to entrench inclusive growth, that is, job-creating growth.”

Therefore, Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS) is aimed at providing Nigerian graduates with quality temporary work experience that will make them stronger candidates for job openings in the labour market through a one year internship placement.

It is however common knowledge that majority of the unemployed youths are graduates who have no working experience and are most times rejected by employers who prefer  experienced hands. It is in the light of this development that GIS was introduced to address the plight of these graduates and in consistence with the president’s vision to tackle youth unemployment which will invariably reduce youth restiveness.

Under the scheme, graduates will be placed in firms and organizations, non-governmental organizations and selected government agencies on one year internship. During the programme, the interns are expected to acquire professional skills, training and work experiences to improve their job placement opportunities.

In return, the federal government will be responsible for paying a monthly stipend to them while participating institutions will be expected to provide adequate opportunities for training and mentoring. Meanwhile the programme is being implemented by the implementation unit in the Federal Ministry of Finance and it is headed by a project director that directly reports to the coordinating minister of the economy and the minister of finance.

Therefore, eligibility is strictly open to unemployed Nigerian graduates alone whose qualification ranges between Higher National Diploma (HND) and university degrees, and who must have completed their National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme. Through this, there will be reduced vulnerability of unemployed graduates and an improvement of the national manpower base that aims at the attainment of national development goals.

The programme though has duration of one year for each participating graduate who must be between the ages of 18 and 40 years. Within this period, it is expected that any candidate that must participated must have been fully mentored to be employable by any firm of competent jurisdiction. This means that interns must work within the standard working hours of the firm or organization to which they are attached and there is no room for re-application upon completion of the scheme.

Moreover, apart from the benefit of work experience, the government pays the sum of N25, 000 monthly as stipends to each intern. This interestingly is done through a valid bank account of the intern so cash payment is eliminated during the programme.

The projects aims at encouraging many graduates and firms to register for the scheme and it is also on record that more than 120,000 graduates have registered so far while 3,000 firms have also registered to take in graduates for the programme. Selection is carried out on first-come-first-serve basis so that favoritism which seems to mar a lot of processes in country could be checkmated.

To get registered however, prospective candidate is to submit their resume online at www.wyesurep.gov.ng  and make available all original documents for sighting at the point of selection. As a requirement for eligibility also, candidates must submit a statement detailing how his or her participation in the GIS programme would improve his or her employability and as well be beneficial to the nation. All these are expected to be carried out within two pages that must be submitted along.

In the same vein, interested firms seeking to participate in the scheme are required to be registered with Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and other relevant bodies, provide evidence of VAT registration and Tax clearance certificate and ultimately must be prepared to provide a mentoring plan for each intern by detailing specific activities that interns will be engaged.

Consequently, firms must be able to employ interns for a period of one year and must prove that they are economically competent and must be engaged in legitimate business that has audit account. According to Akubo Adegbe, the Head of Operations for GIS, he said that the aim is to create an understanding of the system and how it works, how to create partnership so that the organizations that needs the services of the graduates can be informed of how the organization works and graduates too will get opportunities to work in companies that can tutor them to make a better future.

“The programme is run by the ministry of finance, it is completely run online which means, you cannot just send us a list of some people and tell us that you want them to work for you so that we can pay them, no. firm register online and graduates that are interested in the programme also register online.

“Interested organization only has to go online and make request from the graduates who are registered on line. The secretariat itself has no hand in the selection of graduates that go to a firm. It is being determined by a system so there won’t be scam.

“Everything is done strictly on line, so, it is the companies that determine the graduates they want. It has been designed to be transparent; it has been designed to be efficiently run in such a way that people do not influence the selection or people that are being taken for the programme.”

He further reiterated that as a national programme, it is web based and it is running nationwide. What the organization is doing in Lagos is a sensitization programme.

“There is no office you go to register, everything is done on line. Once anything is online, therefore every Nigerian has access. Graduates are registering and organizations are registering from everywhere in Nigeria. What we need is to get a lot more companies registering so that we can have a lot more requests take these graduates.” He said.

Adegbe concluded by informing the audience that what he ensures is to tell people that are interested in this programme to go and register because it provides them a platform for work experience that makes them employable.

“For organizations that are looking forward to doing their corporate social responsibility, it is an opportunity to employ graduates, get them work for them for one year and actually make a decision on whether to employ them, thereby giving back something to the society.” He added.

On checking the rate of compliance in the part of the firms and the organizations on one hand and the graduates on the other hand, Agegbe said that they have a monitoring system whereby they monitor organizations through platforms that let them report on the interns monthly.

Apart from that, they also do physical monitoring on every organization where they send graduates. Expressing that it is aimed at checking whether the interns are really there and to observe also if they are learning what they should.

Federal Project Implementation Unit (FPIU) has also been created to undertake spot checks during mission to states and any firm or organization that is found culpable in whatever form will be automatically removed from the scheme.

“In a situation whereby graduates are not learning what they should be learning, they are at liberty to terminate the relationship.” He concluded.

As things stands presently and with regards to company participation in the programme, big names like Dangote Groups, IGI, Dana Group, Nigerian Stock Exchange, CHI Pharmaceuticals, Heirs Holdings, Lafarge Cement and WAMCO are already partners.

Banks and government agencies have also registered to come aboard the programme as a mark of support for the scheme. Meanwhile some firms are already putting up requests to employ their interns on account of the competence that they have shown over the one year programme. This however is a pointer to the fact that not all Nigerian graduates that are not employable and as a matter of fact, GIS has succeeded in providing a platform for the sourcing and recruitment of best brains.

Finally, the sensitization programme was generally used to call the media to collaborator with the scheme in reaching out with favorable news coverage of the programme through sensitization of firms, advocacy, and verification of eligible firms so that the aim of the project will not be scuttled mid-way.

Moreover, they solicited the media to help through publication of rich materials on how GIS can help galvanize firms to take graduates and reduce unemployment rate in Nigeria. Especially by encouraging more firms to register for the scheme through the dissemination of positive information and suggest creative solution to challenges.

It is believed that the median will stand with the scheme against uninformed criticisms and encourage media organizations to participate in the scheme as well through registration to take interns.