Enugu State Governnent has partnered a tech firm, African Leadership Accelerator (ALX), to train youths on online tech skills to tackle unemployment and idleness.

The state government and ALX Africa had made it possible for all Enugu State youths to access free-of-charge training on Artificial Intelligence (AI) applicable to all field of human endeavours and jobs.

Speaking further on the partnership on Thursday in Enugu, the state Commissioner for Youths and Sports, Mr Lloyd Ekweremadu, said that the partnership was meant to up-skill and upgrade knowledge newly or already acquired by the youths in the state.

Ekweremadu said that the partnership and the benefit it would bring to the state “is part of the employment vision of Gov. Peter Mbah to reduce unemployment in the state by about 70 per cent by 2030”.

According to him, what we set out to achieve is to ensure employability of Enugu State youths both in locally and international labour market, which is highly competitive.

“His Excellence, Gov. Peter Mbah is keen on developing the capacity of youths and creating their capabilities for them to compete at the global world employment market.

“We intend to use technology, tech enhancement and development to drive this process and ensure youths in the state cover up the knowledge and employability gap,” he said.

Ekweremadu said that the state would start with AI training, which will be done for all youths free-of-charge and thereafter other system and software training/courses would be done online at a reduced cost.

He advised youth to take advantage of the trainig, adding the youth ministry was fashioning out ways to tackle the issue of getting a place within the metropolis where youths with challenge of not having power supply, internet connectivity, a laptop, tablets and android phones can participate in the training.

The Country General Manager of ALX Africa, Ms Ruby Igwe, said that the partnership on various tech training would bring modern skill sets closer to the people especially youths that needed tech skills for employment purpose and to create their own start-ups and be employers of labour.

Igwe said that the free-of-charge AI course training would be for youths between the ages of 18 and 35; while it would run for six weeks on online platform of ALX Africa.

She said that participants, who successful undergo the course, would be certified as well as have opportunities to participate in other online courses that would enhance their knowledge and reposition them to a vintage position in the global market and international mobility of labour.

“The curriculum for our courses especially the AI course is from a reputable US school and the same course is runned globally and even locally in some countries in Africa and one or two states in Nigeria. So, it is nothing short of internationally acceptable AI training.

“After the AI Course, other online courses, meant to equip youths with soft and international sellable online skills, will follow in partnership with the state government to ensure we carry hundreds of thousands of youths along and prepare them for the competitive future ahead,” she said.