A Lagos-based non-governmental organisation, Faith Ikekhide Foundation, FIIF, yesterday, empowered over 3,500 secondary school students, SS3, in Lagos on skill acquisition.
The students, selected from 21 public and seven private schools, were empowered with skills like soap making, barbing, hairdressing, and cake/doughnuts making, among others.
In his keynote address in the programme, tagged: ‘Children Empowerment Conference 2022′, an information and communication technology expert, Olumide Ajayi, exposed the students to various digital skills while advising them to get interested in learning Information technology skills.
Ajayi said: “For you to be relevant in the future, you have to cultivate a learning attitude on digital skills because it will change a lot of things.
“In the next 20 years, 77 percent of the jobs that you see today will be automated. Machines will be the ones doing what human beings are doing today.”
In her speech, the President of FIIF, Faith Ikekhide, said: “Our foundation runs on five pillars using the acronym known as sheep. The sheep stands for skills acquisition for eradicating poverty and hunger, Healthcare support to the less privileged, Educational empowerment, Entrepreneurship for sustainable socioeconomic growth and Partnership for sustainable development.
“Today, we are having a Lagos children empowerment conference to teach the students skills so that they can be useful to themselves and the society at large. Each of the schools represented today learnt more than three skills.”