Kwara State Government is to provide additional training and support to artisans as part of its new policy thrust.

Malam Mohammed Raji, the Commissioner for Education and Human Capital Development, announced this on Wednesday during a sensitisation meeting with proprietors of vocational training centres in Ilorin.

"The Executive Governor of Kwara on assumption of office made skills acquisition and vocational training the new policy thrust of his administration.

"This policy thrust seeks to empower the teeming youths in the vocation of their choice to become self-reliant," he said.

Raji said that the government’s decision was aimed at supporting existing vocational centres to improve on their training procedures.

According to him, by so doing, competent skilled artisans whose services will be desired anywhere in the world will be produced.

He added that the state government had put up a machinery to discourage youth involvement in violence and other social vices.

"The government has earlier restructured its Ministry of Education in order to achieve this objective.

"It has put in place strategies that will revolutionise the educational sector, with results on education-linked areas in terms of enlarged capabilities, employable skills and relevant virtues.

"The essence of this is to develop the youths, students, graduates and others that desire to acquire a skill and achieve self-realisation.

"So that they will no longer depend on the government or spend years walking the streets of major cities in search of jobs that are not available," the commissioner said.
Earlier, the Director, Omo Iya Fashion Centre, Mr. Waheed Adelodun, had commended the state government for the initiative and appealed to it to urgently address the problem of epileptic electricity supply which was crippling their businesses.