Guinness Nigeria as part of its contribution to strengthen capacity in the Nigeria’s power sector has organised a graduation ceremony for the pioneer beneficiaries of the company’s Graduate Skills Development Scholarship.
The programme is one of the three scholarship schemes Guinness Nigeria leverages to equip Nigerian youths with the skills they need to build successful careers and enhance their livelihoods.
The first set of engineers recently completed a one-year training programme at the National Power Training Institute of Nigeria.
Viola Graham-Douglas, Corporate Relations director, Guinness Nigeria Plc, while speaking at the graduation ceremony organised for the beneficiaries of the programme, said the objective of the company’s collaboration with NAPTIN is to provide a pool of resourceful, competent and versatile engineers who can deliver peerless technical services to further shore up the government’s transformation agenda in the power sector.
The Guinness Graduate Skills Development Scholarship provides an opportunity for young engineering graduates to undergo one-year training at the National Power Training Institute of Nigeria (NAPTIN). Upon completion of the programme, graduates gain valuable skills they need to work for organisations that manage power generation, transmission and distribution.
Graham-Douglas observed that the graduands, “having scaled through all hurdles in the course of their training, have remarkably demonstrated high technical and leadership competencies, which “we strongly believe, will help accelerate their career progression.”
She further commended all the beneficiaries for putting in so much hard work to earn their certification.
“You scaled through the competitive selection process for the scholarship; you excelled in the class-based component of the training and you successfully fulfilled the requirements of the job placement programme. Indeed, you should all be proud of your achievements,” she said.
Bola Olajomi-Otubu, Human Resources director, Guinness Nigeria Plc, on her part urged all the NAPTIN-certified engineers to take good advantage of their newly-acquired skills to propel their careers.
She noted that if well utilised, the skills they have acquired could enhance their technical know-how, improve productivity, and ultimately induce value-added production capacity. She enjoined all the beneficiaries to take advantage of the knowledge transfer and be the best that they can be.
Ahmed Bolaji Nagode, acting director-general of NAPTIN, disclosed that the participation of Guinness Nigeria Plc is very noteworthy because the organisation is not a core player in the power business ecosystem”.
He further noted that Guinness Nigeria’s commitment to youth development is commendable as it provides an example worthy of emulation by other non-core power sector players.
Others include: Guinness Nigeria’s technical training scholarship, which offers young school leavers a unique opportunity to study at the prestigious Institute for Industrial Technology (IIT), and an undergraduate scholarship scheme, which supports undergraduates from Guinness Nigeria’s host communities studying in tertiary institutions.
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