Economy
THE Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) on Thursday partnered the Ogun State Government to train 100 teachers across the state in entrepreneurship skills.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the three- day capacity building workshop held in Abeokuta had as its theme: “SMEDAN Mind Shift Entrepreneurship Programme- National School Entrepreneurship Programme (N-SEP) 2022.”
Declaring the programme open, the Director-General of SMEDAN, Mr Olawale Fasanya, said the programme was aimed at educating both primary and secondary school teachers across the state.
Fasanya explained that they would in turn step it down to the students and imbibe in them the spirit of entrepreneurship.
The director-general, represented by Mr Yinka Fisher, the Director, Partnership and Coordination Department of SMEDAN, noted that students would no longer wait for white collar jobs while out of school but use skills acquired to become entrepreneurs.
He said that the N-SEP was to prepare the pupils/students for the fourth Industrial Revolution through their teachers, adding that there was paradigm shift in today’s education.
“It is no longer go to school, get good grades and get a good job but go to school, get good grades and acquire skills of being your own boss and starting your own business.
“This can only be achieved through an efficient entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurship development.
“The era of brilliant curriculum vitae is over, this is the era of crafting a bankable business plan that will launch students into being their own bosses,” he said.
Fasanya saud the agency had been in the forefront of advancing entrepreneurship for the growth and development of the country.
He disclosed that the agency had carefully designed Teachers Manual to guide the teachers on how to inculcate the culture and spirit of entrepreneurship into the students.
Fasanya stated that the concept of the programme was to inculcate into students the intellectual consciousness of their environment to enable them maximise their existence and potential.
“It is an adaptable education that will prepare the students for self -employment which must necessarily be the ultimate,” he said.
He added that the programme would go a long way in actualising the Federal Government’s efforts of bringing unemployment to the barest minimum.
He appealed to participants to take advantage of the programme to prepare and equip themselves as entrepreneurs as well as entrepreneurship educators.
Gov. Dapo Abiodun of Ogun, represented by his Special Adviser on Industry,Trade and Investment, Mr Remi Ogunmefun, commended the agency for the partnership.
Abiodun said that the programme was in line with his administration’s support for education and job creation.
“The old days are gone, now we need to educate people on having that mindset of being an entrepreneur and contributing to the economy,” he said.
Some of the participants, Mr Adeniyi Adeyemi from Mercy Land International College and Mrs Fransisca Salako from Rev. Kuti Memorial Grammer School in Abeokuta, commended SMEDAN for the training.
They, however, pledged on behalf of other participants to make proper use of the training adding that they would as well train their students. (NAN)
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Tags: Adeniyi Adeyemi Dapo Abiodun Olawale Fasanya SMEDAN Yinka Fisher
