Lagos State Government officially launched the ‘Ready, Set, Work’ (RSW), training programme – the biggest and largest volunteer training programme in Nigeria, on Thursday at the Landmark Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Speaking at the official launch of RSW, the Special Adviser on Education to Lagos State Governor, Mr. Fela Bank-Olemoh, explained that the programme is an initiative of the State Government that focuses on training final year students of tertiary institutions in Lagos to build their confidence as well as prepare their minds for self-dependence and the post-graduation rigours of the society.

He noted that the training programme is for job placement and entrepreneurship development which qualifies exemplary students, from all tertiary institutions in the state irrespective of its ownership, for internship placement in a renowned organisation.

According to him, “We are here today to officially launch ‘The Ready-Set-Work’ faculty. We want to build the largest volunteer faculty in Nigeria. Since the commencement of the programme, we have engaged volunteers, who are professionals from various sectors of the economy to train and mentor the students in the 13-week training programme”.

“We started the programme two years ago with 120 facilitators and 20,000 participants but due to government’s commitment in making this administration all inclusive, we have decided to increase the number of participants to 25,000 and the facilitators to750 to make it the largest volunteer facilitators in Nigeria,” he added

Bank-Olemoh stated further that the training is for a period of 13 weeks at three centres in the State: Lagos State University Ojo, Lagos State Polytechnic Ikorodu and the University of Lagos Akoka.

He said the State Government was set to increase the number of participating schools this year to accommodate Yaba College of Technology, Federal College of Education (Technical) and Caleb University, which is in line with government’s commitment to ensure that every student graduating from any tertiary institution in Lagos State was prepared for the world of work as an employer of labour or a value-adding employee.

•Source: lagosstate.gov.ng