World Skills Day: How MOJEC Has Been Providing Succor To Nigerian Youths Through Job Creation

The United Nations General Assembly, in 2014, declared 15 July as World Youth Skills Day.

The declaration was meant to celebrate the strategic importance of equipping young people with skills for employment, decent work, and entrepreneurship.

Since then, World Youth Skills Day has provided a unique opportunity for dialogue between young people, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions, firms, employers’ and workers’ organizations, policy-makers, and development partners.

The significance of the day is to provide a better opportunity for employment, higher income levels, and lifelong learning to the new generation. The World Youth Skills Day encourages the elimination of gender inequality and ensures disadvantaged people have access to resources.

World Skills Day: How MOJEC Has Been Providing Succor to Nigerian Youths Through Job Creation

World Youth Skills Day 2022 takes place amid concerted efforts toward socio-economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic that are interconnected with challenges such as climate change, conflict, persisting poverty, rising inequality, rapid technological change, demographic transition, and others.

The theme for this year is ‘Transforming Youth skills for the future.’

Education and training are central to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda which are Sustainable Development Goals or Global Goals. They are a collection of 17 interlinked global goals designed to be a “blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all”.

The SDGs were set up in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly and are intended to be achieved by 2030.The vision of the Incheon Declaration: Education 2030 is fully captured by Sustainable Development Goal 4 which is to, “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”.

Education 2030 devotes considerable attention to technical and vocational skills development, specifically regarding access to affordable quality Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET); the acquisition of technical and vocational skills for employment, decent work, and entrepreneurship; the elimination of gender disparity and ensuring access for the vulnerable.

One leading company in Nigeria that is ensuring that youths are well equipped with skills and getting job opportunities is MOJEC International, an indigenous meter manufacturing company. It collaborated with the Federal Government of Nigeria to train the youths in manufacturing and installation.

The training dubbed, MOJEC Meter Training Institute is a nationwide programme seeking to train and employ Nigerian men and women across the country in MOJEC’s franchise areas called EKEDC, IBEDC, IKEDC, EEDC, JECC, KAEDCO, AEDC.

After meter production, the most limiting factor to the deployment of meters is the herculean task of installation and the dearth of manpower required to achieve these installations. For a 1 million nationwide meter roll-out programme, the industry barely has sufficient skilled labour of up 5,000 teams nationwide as opposed to 20,000 or more teams required across the country.

The project targeted 5,000 teams, making a total of 10,000 individuals while the first installment was carried out by 1000 teams, making a total of 2,000 individuals.

Participation was opened to persons from 18 years and above, while the academic qualification requirement is Ordinary National Diploma (OND)/Technical College Graduates (Engineering Preferable).

MOJEC also partnered with Sahara Foundation, Energy Training Centre (ETC) and Ikeja Electric to train several metering personnel through an end-user Metering Capacity Building (MCB) programm in Lagos.

In recognition of this noble effort, the Lagos State Government recently gave MOJEC an award of recognition for employing 250 Technical College graduates of the State last year and 200 this year.

The award was presented at the Year 2022 Equity Quality Ubiquity Access Learning (EQUAL) Summit, put together by the State Ministry of Education in collaboration with the Office of Sustainable Development Goals and Investment.

In her acceptance speech, while receiving the award on behalf of MOJEC, Chairman/CEO, Mrs. Mojisola Abdul described the recognition as a testament to what the company stands for which is excellent because it believes that good education is the bedrock of the development of any society and providing jobs for the youths cannot be underestimated, because an idle hand is a devil’s workshop.

She said, “for us as a company, we believe that children are the future of a country so we need to give them the best education. I remember that my mother used to say that even if it’s only one piece of clothing that was left for her, her children must go to school, and that’s the legacy I built on.

That’s why MOJEC deems it fit to give back to society because the government cannot do it all. This is part of our corporate citizenship duties, for which we are proud. We thank the government of Lagos State for the recognition.”

In agreement with the Chairman/CEO’s speech at the award, the company acknowledged that supporting metering technicians with skills needed to drive efficient metering is consequential to enhancing sector performance, as it will lead to an increase in revenue collection which in turn will bolster overall transmission and distribution capacity in addition to significant Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) improvements in the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry (NESI).

Head of Installations, MOJEC Meter Asset Management Company, Engineer Monday Ubogu, whilst addressing trainees stated that efficient metering will not only assuage deficiencies associated with the poor metering process but also engender and build trust in customers.

He said, “With the National end user metering gap just over 10 million today, the imperatives of a robust and efficient metering infrastructure in the NESI cannot be over-emphasized.

Efficient metering will increase customers’ confidence in billing transparency, completely eradicate the quagmire of estimated billing, pave the way for cost-reflective tariff and provide much-needed cash flow required by the market for value chain performance improvement”.

The company promises not to rest on its oars and it would continue to blaze the trail for others to follow in Nigeria and Africa at large.

BY IYABO AINA

Publisher Of News Rain Nigeria