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Jobberman has partnered with the Nigerian Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to annually train at least 120,000 youth corps members with soft skills courses. Sub-Saharan Africa’s single largest job placement website was co-founded by Nigeria’s Olalekan Olude in 2016. Olude currently serves as the company’s chief operating officer.
The partnership seeks to empower Nigerian graduates with soft skills to increase their employment prospects. The free training program is the company’s latest specialty.
The program will be held at NYSC camps across Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. The NYSC provides a platform for Jobberman to tackle the issues of unemployment and underemployment amongst the country’s 100 million youths.
In a statement regarding the partnership, Jobberman Nigeria CEO Rolake Rosiji said: “Aligning with an organization such as NYSC, which has built a reputation of nurturing the development of young Nigerians to enhance the country, is in line with Jobberman’s mission to create a dynamic and skilled workforce to help it reach its full potential.”
He added that “the NYSC resonates with all Nigerians and is a homegrown partnership that Jobberman is very proud to have established; the significance of which will be transformational for the country’s youth and economy.”
Rosiji was appointed as CEO of the tech startup in February, following Hilda Kabushenga Kragha, the new managing director of ROAM* Africa Jobs.
Recent statistics put the youth unemployment rate in Nigeria at around 14.2 percent, where underemployment between the ages of 15 to 34 rose to 57 percent in Q2 2020. Nigeria has the sixth-largest youth population globally, with more than 300,000 young people entering the jobs market monthly. This makes securing employment increasingly challenging and competitive.
However, employability continues to be a determining factor, as research shows that hard skills only contribute to 15 percent of success in obtaining a job, whereas soft skills make up 85 percent. Soft skills bridge the gap between education and employment. As a result, candidates are more equipped for the workplace.
“Jobberman’s partnership with NYSC will drive youth employment across states through hybrid and digitally-enabled training,” NYSC’s CDS and Special Projects Director Rasak Salawu said. “This will be an opportunity provided to graduates of different schools and backgrounds in Nigeria and abroad.”
Jobberman soft skills program
Jobberman launched its soft skills training program in May 2020 at the height of the pandemic. It has helped to upskill over 100,000 young people since its inception, placing more than 60 percent of those who completed the course According to Jobberman, the training is free for young Nigerians and will run indefinitely.
While the NYSC focuses on bringing thousands of youth from around Nigeria to steer youth capacity development and foster cultural and social cohesion, Jobberman focuses on upskilling 5 million young people and placing 3 million in employment by 2025.
In February 2021, Olude’s brainchild successfully piloted the program with NYSC. It trained 35 NYSC schedule officers at a Lagos camp before the partnership launched the first of its three-week camps in April.
*ROAM Africa Jobs brands are the dominant recruitment solutions platforms in Africa. ROAM Africa brands include BrighterMonday in East Africa (focusing on Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda) and Jobberman in West Africa (focusing on Nigeria and Ghana).
