Finance ministry enlightens interns on employment opportunities

The Federal Ministry of Finance has commenced a three-day orientation exercise for interns on how they can secure their dream jobs through the ongoing Graduate Internship Scheme.

A representative of the finance ministry, Mr. Aremu Olaniran, speaking at the training on Wednesday, said GIS was established as part of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme.

He explained that the programme sought to provide graduates with quality temporary work experience to make them stronger candidates for job openings in the labour market.

According to him, such experience will boost their chances of becoming self-employed.

'The scheme will improve job placement opportunities for graduates by providing them with the opportunity to acquire professional skills, training and work experience through a one-year internship placement,' he said.

Olaniran said that though the exercise was a short-term measure, GIS had high prospects for job creation, improving the welfare of youths and achieving the inclusive growth objective of the Federal Government's transformation agenda.

He said the Federal Government would be responsible for paying a monthly stipend to the graduate interns while participating institutions/firms would be expected to provide adequate opportunities for training and mentoring the interns during the period of training.

He said the GIS was targeting up to 50,000 graduate interns yearly.

'The process of selection is not competitive, as the Federal Project Implementation Unit would like to give an opportunity to all private/public firms to take part in this national intervention,' he said.

He said the orientation exercise was aimed at preparing hired interns for the working environment and skills acquisition.

This, he said, would also guide partnering firms and interns on the GIS, especially on their roles and responsibilities.

One of the facilitators from After School Graduate Development, Mrs. Funmi Adeyemi, said the interns were being trained to support and add value to the organisations where they would work.

She advised the interns to build self-confidence and develop the needed skills that would enable them to secure the right jobs when the opportunities arose.

Over 83,000 beneficiaries have been registered, which is beyond the threshold of 50,000 allotted for the scheme in any given year.