Dare thrilled by ‘youth’s productive use of isolation period’

Youth and Sports Development Minister, Mr. Sunday Dare yesterday expressed satisfaction at the number of Nigerian youths that have taken the online training and attained competency badges under the ministry’s DY.ng initiative.

He said the training, a product of the Ministry’s collaboration with IBM, has been hugely beneficial to a large number of Nigerian youths, who have taken their time to tap into the free online courses during the COVID-19 shutdown to learn and acquire skills in areas of their choice.

The minster urged those yet to sign up for the free training to tap into the opportunity during this period, adding, “the badges could add to your curriculum vitae and serve as an added advantage in the job and entrepreneurial market, which is that the skills will give our youth what we call AA – Added Advantage, to their degrees or diplomas.”

The DY.ng initiative comprises both online and offline training in a wide range of areas, such as Web Development, Cloud, Blockchain, Enterprise Design Thinking, Data Science and Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Coding, Internet of Things, APIs and Micro-services, Containers and Kubernetes, Cybersecurity, Quantum Computing, DevOps, amongst others.

The courses are to be delivered to over 500,000 Nigerian youth in various centres across the country over the next two years, but due to the national shutdown, only the online programmes are currently accessible.

Meanwhile, the ministry has continued to work with other strategic organisations globally to deliver industry desired skills and training opportunities to the youth through its DEEL Programme, which was launched at the ministry’s Africa Youth Day celebration in Abuja last year.  

The DEEL programme is set to equip the Nigerian youth with Digital Skills, Employability, Entrepreneurship and Leadership skills.