The first convocation ceremony of Odu’a-Ekiti Skill Acquisition Centre in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, holds tomorrow with 200 trainees coming out as graduates. The move, in simple terms, will bring to fruition one of the visions of Odu’a Investment Company Limited to empower the youth and make them entrepreneurs that would eventually become employers of labour. It was also designed to ensure that the company’s massive but moribund textile factory facility wasting away in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, is brought to useful engagement.

In the quest to achieve these, the Odu’a conglomerate entered into a partnership with the Ekiti State government, led by Dr Kayode Fayemi and came up with the Ekiti-Odu’a Skill Acquisition Centre. The Ekiti State government The Ekiti State government has also made available tools that could pass for a package of “investible assets” for the graduating trainees. In essence, the youth were not just trained and left to fend for themselves; they were trained and set up in their various vocations with the necessary take-off facilities. Thus, Odu’a and Ekiti government in this partnership did not just give them  education, but the requisite investment to give them a chance to establish themselves in the macro economy.

The successful students of the centre who are graduating tomorrow as the pioneers, began their training in January 2012 after the centre was inaugurated by Governor Fayemi on October 15, 2011. At the ceremony in which the Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr Olusegun Aganga, was in attendance, tomorrow.

Speaking on the specifics of the training given the first graduating set, Director-General of Ekiti Enterprise Development Agency, Mr Seyi Oscar Aiyeleso, explained that they had been given all-round education that included risk management. This is because the new entrepreneurs are expected to run their businesses by themselves and to be able to situate their training well, they were taken from zero level and even in Ekiti tongue to be able to have a good grasp of their skills development.

Aiyeleso said the trainees came without any training and they are leaving the centre after becoming proficient in their chosen fields. “We want to take them from low level to some level. You don’t need to have skill in any vocation, but we help youth to grow in what skill they desire,” the Director- General said.

Part of the moribund Oduatex, a textile factory owned by Odu’a that held sway in the manufacturing sector in Ado Ekiti in the past was converted by the company as an Enterprise Development Centre and Skill Acquisition Centre for the purposes of training youths in skills and vocations and a Builders’ Mart. Some specific equipment of the textile mills were refurbished for workshop practices while additional equipment and tools were acquired for training.

Part of the factory complex was also redesigned and redeveloped into classrooms, workshops and administrative offices.

Thus, Odu’a has been making the best of the current economic realities by training the younger generation  to be able to stand up to the challenges of the future.