By Onyekachukwu Utebor
The Federal Government and the private sector have renewed efforts to bridge the gap between education and employment, with hundreds of young Nigerians in Delta State waiting for businesses to give them a chance to turn their skills into sustainable livelihoods.
The call was made in Warri on Tuesday at a stakeholders’ engagement on the future of Delta State’s workforce, where government officials, development partners and private-sector organisations were urged to move beyond conventional recruitment and invest in young people already trained and prepared for the workplace.
The engagement, organised under the Nigeria Jubilee Fellows Programme (NJFP), placed fresh responsibility on businesses to become active partners in solving Nigeria’s growing school-to-work challenge.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Delivery and Coordination, Office of the Vice President, Okubo Adegbe, said the Federal Government was determined to ensure that NJFP evolved beyond simply placing young Nigerians in organisations to building a sustainable system that would continuously prepare them for the labour market.
He said the next phase of the programme would focus heavily on employability and the creation of a national internship system capable of addressing the persistent disconnect between what young Nigerians learn in school and what employers require.
“We want to make sure that the programme is purposeful, especially as we enter into the next phase of the programme, which is employability and a national internship programme that is sustainable beyond just providing information.
“The issue is addressing the gap between education and school and the workplace. We want a system that can constantly address that gap and solve our school-to-work problem,” Adegbe said.
According to him, the success of youth employment initiatives should not be measured only by the number of young people placed in organisations, but also by the value those young people and the programme create for participating businesses.
Adegbe explained that stronger businesses would have greater capacity to retain workers, expand their operations and ultimately create more jobs for Nigerians.
He said conversations with participating organisations had therefore shifted from merely asking companies to accept fellows to examining how businesses could improve their operations, increase productivity and strengthen their bottom lines.
The approach, he said, would enable businesses to grow while creating a more sustainable pathway for young people to remain in employment.
For hundreds of young Nigerians in Delta, the challenge is no longer simply acquiring qualifications.
It is finding an employer willing to provide that first opportunity.
The Private Sector Engagement Lead of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Dr Weyinmi Eribo, said businesses already had access to a pool of young Nigerians who had gone through recruitment, assessment, training and workplace preparation under NJFP.
She said employers therefore did not need to start recruitment from scratch when they could tap into a talent pool already developed through the programme.
“The programme is not starting from zero. It has been running for a couple of years and we have seen it work. There is an existing talent that is already built in the ecosystem in Delta, ready and available for organisations to take on as fellows,” Eribo said.
The NJFP, funded by the European Union and implemented by UNDP in collaboration with the Federal Government, was established to connect young Nigerians with organisations where they can acquire practical workplace experience and develop skills needed in the labour market.
Eribo disclosed that the programme was designed to engage 34,968 young people across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, with fellows undertaking 12-month placements in host organisations.
Each fellow receives a monthly stipend of N150,000 during the 12-month placement, while some host organisations provide additional support.
Since its commencement in 2022, she said, 34,968 young people had been placed in organisations across the country, with women accounting for about 58 per cent and men 42 per cent.
More than 10,000 host organisations have participated in the programme, while over N26 billion has been disbursed through the initiative for stipends and coordination.
The fellows have gained practical experience across sectors including agriculture, technology, education, healthcare and business management.
Eribo explained that beneficiaries are identified, assessed and matched with organisations based on their qualifications and skills after undergoing recruitment tests, psychometric assessments and other selection processes.
They also receive mentoring and workplace exposure, with the expectation that the experience would lead to permanent employment, further job opportunities or entrepreneurship.
But in Delta State, the programme is confronting a familiar problem: talented young people are available, but the number of available opportunities remains limited.
Eribo disclosed that only 49 young people were currently placed across participating organisations in the state, despite the programme’s investment in Delta exceeding N300 million.
About 130 host organisations have so far participated in the programme in the state, while 39 young people who had completed the selection process were still waiting for suitable host organisations.
More than 300 other young people were also awaiting placement, she added, underscoring the urgent need for more companies to open their doors to young talents.
Women continue to account for the larger share of participants in Delta, representing approximately 58.9 per cent, compared with 41.17 per cent for men.
Eribo said organisations wishing to host fellows were subjected to verification to establish their credibility, registration status, office facilities and ability to provide a safe and productive environment for young Nigerians.
Education, technology, business management and healthcare are among the sectors attracting fellows in Delta.
She cited the example of a young woman with a background in health education and technology who was placed in the insurance department of a hospital.
According to her, the fellow was able to combine her knowledge of healthcare and technology to contribute meaningfully to the organisation despite not being placed directly in a conventional health education role.
Beyond current fellows, Eribo said businesses could also recruit from an existing NJFP talent pool made up of young Nigerians who had completed their fellowship but were not retained by their host organisations.
Delta State currently has about 150 young people in the talent pool, with expertise and interests spanning information and communication technology, oil and gas, energy and power generation, logistics and other sectors.
She urged businesses seeking skilled manpower to consider the pool as a ready source of young professionals who already understand workplace expectations.
The appeal comes as NJFP prepares to enter its third phase, which Eribo described as an opportunity to build on the lessons and feedback from the first two iterations of the programme.
She said NJFP 3.0 would create greater opportunities for private-sector organisations, development partners and state governments to participate in funding and implementation, thereby reducing dependence on donor funding.
“The programme is now evolving. We have had NJFP 1.0, we have had NJFP 2.0, and now we are moving into the third iteration of the programme.
“What this means is that we will be able to take quite a number of feedback that we received from 1.0 and 2.0 to make the programme speak more to the realities of both organisations and young people across the different states,” she said.
Eribo said funding for the next phase could come from development partners, private-sector organisations and state governments, adding that discussions were already being opened with state governors on investments in youth employment.
She challenged businesses to stop viewing NJFP merely as a platform for hosting fellows and instead see it as an investment in the workforce they would need in the future.
According to her, companies could sponsor fellows in areas including agriculture, oil and gas, women and girls’ economic empowerment, climate and the green economy, science, technology, engineering and mathematics, future economy skills, food systems, disability inclusion, creative and cultural industries, innovation, enterprise and entrepreneurship.
Businesses could also support professional certification, mentorship, skills development, enterprise development and work-transition programmes.
“At the end of the day, NJFP has an open platform, Delta has the talent, and the opportunity now is for businesses to help build what comes next with NJFP in Delta State,” Eribo said.
She explained that companies could participate through talent sponsorship, sector-specific interventions, geographical targeting, enterprise support, strategic introductions and other forms of collaboration.
For businesses without vacancies or the capacity to directly host fellows, she urged them to connect NJFP with credible organisations within their networks that could provide opportunities for young Nigerians.
She said the programme was prepared to work with interested organisations to design pathways around their areas of interest, develop investment proposals and facilitate their participation.
The stakeholders’ engagement therefore shifted the youth employment conversation from what government alone can do to what government, businesses and development partners can achieve together.
For the young Nigerians waiting in Delta, the issue is deeply personal.
Their certificates, skills and training have brought them close to the workplace, but the absence of an employer willing to provide the opportunity could leave them stranded between graduation and sustainable employment.
With more than 300 young people awaiting placement and about 150 trained fellows already available in the talent pool, stakeholders said the private sector had an opportunity to turn an existing pool of human capital into productive manpower.
The message from the engagement was clear: government can create the framework, development partners can provide support, but businesses must help provide the workplace opportunities capable of turning young Nigerians’ potential into livelihoods.
Stakeholders therefore called for stronger collaboration among the Federal Government, Delta State Government, private-sector organisations and development partners to ensure that young people are not only trained for work but are given a genuine pathway into sustainable employment, enterprise and economic independence.
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