President Muhammadu Buhari has been urged to sustain beyond 2015 the federal government’s Graduate, Internship  Scheme (GIS), a  career development and entrepreneurship training programme of the Federal Ministry of Finance.

This appeal was made just as a total of 282 interns selected under the scheme in Kwara state successfully completed their one year career development programme.

The programme which took place in three centres across the state with a total of 282  participants was designed to empower participants with entrepreneurship skills that would in turn make them to be self reliant and become employers of labour rather than job seekers.

In his address at an exit training programme for the participants in Ilorin on Monday, GIS project director, federal ministry of finance ,Mr P.M papka and participants at the programme urged the federal government to sustain the programme beyond 2015.

The project director who was represented by Mrs. Yusuf Kokori Hajara, said the essence of the exit training was to review participants experiences, assess their progress and plan for entry into their planned businesses or careers.

He tasked the successful participants to ensure that their internship adds value not just to their immediate employers but to the nation as a whole.

“It may be of interest to you that there are several interns who have set up businesses and employed colleagues as their workers. This is therefore a call to those about exiting to refocus your energies into being employers of labour as against being employees; opportunities for being an employee of labour is getting slimmer and more stiffly competitive; if those of your colleagues, did start own businesses you too can do it. Where there is a will there is always a way (s)”, she said

Latter in an interview with journalists, Hajara  said the ministry was impressed with the performances of participants and feed backs from some firms that engaged  them urging the government to sustain the scheme beyond 2015 to further reduce youths unemployment.

Some of the participants who spoke at the programme appealed to the federal government to sustain the programme beyond 2015.