Vice Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2020 elections, Mr Peter Obi, has called on youths to get themselves involved in learning more skills that will help them in the future, while urging governments to take investments in vocational and technical education more seriously.
Obi, who said this while celebrating the World Youth Skills Day on July 15, 2020, explained how important it was for the government to invest heavily in vocational and technical education to the benefit of the youths.
Obi stated that the realities of today’s world have shown that one needs some skills to succeed irrespective of their intellectual abilities. He said that by investing in education, the government will better equip the youth with requisite skills to compete on the international platform.
“This is an opportunity for Nigeria to invest heavily in the education sector. A good investment in Basic Education both at Primary and Secondary levels will empower the youth with requisite skills to be able to compete globally in Science, Technology, ICT, Engineering and other fields of endeavour.
“Therefore, governments must look closely at vocational education and strengthen skill acquisition among the youth. The educational curricula of schools should also reflect skill acquisition as an integral part in the formation of a productive youth, well equipped for global impacts,” Obi said.
Wishing the youth well in their endeavours, Obi reminded them that their future was in their hands. He advised them to involve themselves in all kinds of productive skills acquisition without waiting for the government to do everything for them.
The World Youth Skills Day 2020 themed “Skills for a Resilient Youth” was powered by the United Nations, UNESCO, International Labour Organisation (ILO) and others.