Content
Nigeria is severely affected by extreme poverty. It has more than 200 million inhabitants, and one of the largest populations of youth in the world. About 3.5 million young Nigerians enter the labour market every year. Over 43 per cent of the potential working population in Nigeria is either unemployed or underemployed.
The lack of employment and income-generating prospects is driving internal migration from rural areas to economically prosperous urban centres, and migration to other countries, particularly the EU. The poor quality of VET standards, curricula, teacher training and equipment in the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) system leads to a shortage of qualified labour.
According to the Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the country's economy contracted by 6.1 per cent in the second quarter of 2020 due to the Covid-19-pandemic. This leads to higher unemployment and worsens the situation of women and disadvantaged groups.
Objective
The prospects of gainful employment for Nigerians aged between 15 and 35 and for returnees have improved in selected sectors of the economy.
Approach
The project focuses primarily at unemployed or underemployed young women and men. Beneficiaries are small-scaled farmers, as well as micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSME), skilled workers in construction, agriculture, industrial mechanics, and apprentices in the formal sector.
The SKYE project focuses on the following areas:
• Development of an institutionalized permanent dialogue between the public and private sector at the federal and state levels. Within the dialogue processes, policy recommendations for TVET and employment promotion are being developed.
• Development and improving national TVET standards in agriculture, construction and manufacturing.
• The project promotes the design and implementation of innovative pilot models in the field of formal and non-formal technical and vocational education and training.
• SKYE supports employment promotion structures at federal and state levels by establishing proactive labour market measures.