By Henry Oqua
The Edo State Government is partnering with the German and Swiss Governments to achieve its target of having one technical college in each of the 18 Local Government Areas across the State.
The Governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki disclosed this during the launch of five new Edo Jobs Centres across the State on Monday, September 26, 2022. Speaking to newsmen after a tour of the Edo Innovates Hub in Benin City, Obaseki said that having been satisfied with the impact made by EdoJobs, the time had come to take the partnership with both countries and other organisations to the next level.
“We are taking EdoJobs to another level as you can see. We launched an innovation hub here four years ago with which we have facilitated skills development, teaching young people entrepreneurship, skills and helped them with job placement.
“Today we are taking these services to the rural areas in Edo. We were in Uromi today to launch one of them physically, but we also have in Auchi, Jattu, Usen, and two more in Edo South.
“We have come here this evening to show our partners what we’ve done with the support we have received from them and also to commission some of these centres.
The German Consul General, Weert Borner, who was accompanied by his wife, commended the impact made in the four years of his country’s partnership with the Edo State Government through EdoJobs
“The German Government has been supporting this skill training and employment project for Edo State since 2018, and it will continue for the next couple of years.
“Now we are working to focus together on vocational training because that is part of the future of your youth here, to learn skills and to implement those skills in new jobs.
“We are very happy to be able to support you in this financially but also with a lot of advice and technological support.
“We have been to Uromi in the countryside, and that was really impressive to see how much is already going on there with skills training, with interview training, not just to find jobs better, but to be able to offer something to the job market.
Recall that the German Federation, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Skills Development for Youth Development, German Cooperation, and the Edo State Government have been working assiduously to make Edo State a hub producing quality talent with in-demand skills, and seamlessly connecting them to outstanding job opportunities.
Edojobs was set up as the machine for achieving Mr Obaseki’s goal of 200, 000 jobs in his first term, a feat that has since been delivered on.
Explaining the nature of the partnership with the foreign nations and organisations, Governor Obaseki said: “The way we work is that we’ve always counterpart-funded all our projects. We do not rely exclusively on our partners and because of the success and what we have done with the funding, we’re going into the next stage where they will be supporting us on achieving your target of the 18 technical colleges in Edo State.
“And like here, they will provide hands-on technical support to make sure that these children not only get certificates but also get skills and vocational training by the time they finish from these technical schools.” Obaseki concluded.
Earlier at the launch of the EdoJobs Centre in Uromi, Obaseki was accompanied by Borner and his wife, Tobais Wolfgarten of GIZ; Manuel Muhlebach from the Swiss Embassy, top government officials, traditional rulers and EdoJobs beneficiaries.
