500 youths on Thursday graduated from a one month skills training organised by the Agege local government in collaboration with Oladele Inspires Initiatives.
The training tagged ‘Get Ahead Boot camp 4.0’ was to engage teenagers during the long holiday period by training them in various skills such as photography, cinematography, graphics designing among others.
At the certificate presentation to the participants held at the Agege local government secretariat, Agege, the council Chairman, Vinod Obasa said through the initiative and other programmes of the council, his administration had been able to keep about 4,000 young people engaged throughout the holiday period out of which about 2,000 of them participated in sports activities every week and other productive activities.
Obasa noted that the objectives of the training was to keep young people engaged, make them productive and prevent them from getting involved in vices during the holiday period.
“For us in Agege, we want to be known for the right things. We want our young people to understand their potential and see the opportunities available to them in the future. They can become engineers, doctors, permanent secretaries and successful professionals in different fields. They simply need to stay away from vices and engage themselves in productive activities,” Obasa said.
The council Chairman added that aside from acquiring university certificates, youths should learn skills that will be useful for them in the future noting that ‘adding practical skills to your education can make you productive, create opportunities and enable you to add value to yourself and society.
He called on other individuals to emulate the Oladele Inspires Initiatives by giving back to the society. He also commended the initiator of the programme, Oladele Olaniyan for sustaining the programme in the last four editions while also promising that the council will continue to support such initiatives. The chairman also called on youths to ‘shy away from crime and other vices.
“Leave those things alone because they will not add anything positive to your lives. At the end of the day, they can only leave you with regrets,” he said.
The initiator of the programme, Oladele Olaniyan said he organised the programme having grown up learning skills which helped him when he grew up.
“ We organized this programme so that teenagers can learn skills when they are still young. We trained them in cinematography, drone piloting, photography and graphic design with support from the Agege local government Chairman. We wanted to train 200 but he said we should increase it to 500,” he said.
He assured that the programme will continue yearly with focus on teenagers during their holiday. He urged the beneficiaries to learn more and not rely only on the knowledge they gained during the one month training.
One of the beneficiaries, Ania-Casimia from Delta State who came to learn photography commended the organisers of the programme.
“ I used to consider myself an amateur photographer, but now I can confidently say that I am a photographer. After completing my photography training, I felt I needed to learn more. So I attended the programme to train in photography, cinematography and graphic design.
The training has been worthwhile and amazing. I’ve gained a lot of knowledge and a basic understanding of things that I previously didn’t know. Before the training, I was basically stumbling around and figuring things out as I went along. But this training was able to put me on a clear pathway, and that has really worked for me. I’ve been able to see the results in my photography,” he said.
Another participant Modinat Opemipo from Ikorodu said she was at the camp to learn drone piloting and learnt the dynamics of drones and how to fly a drone. She thanked the organisers for the initiative.