News: SURE - P To Incentivise Employers Under GIS Scheme

SURE-P - The Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS), has indicated plans to provide incentives to employers of labour who accommodate graduates under the scheme, while urging them to key into the programme to help reduce unemployment in the country.

Specifically, the programme seeks to advocate tax rebates and other benefits for participating organisations to encourage them.

Head, Operations, GIS, Akubo Adegbe disclosed this at a forum organised by the team to sensitise the media on the goals of the programme. Adegbe added that the team would commence a sensitization tour of key areas in Lagos state by Monday, to enlighten employers and other stake- holders on the need to key into the programme.

He said the programme aimed to reduce the level of graduate unemployment among youths between the ages of 18 and 40 years by providing employment for 50,000 graduates yearly and building the country's manpower base in the drive toward attainment of national development goals.

According to him, the sensitization sessions would see the team moving from Lekki on Tuesday to Yaba on Wednesday and Ikeja on Thursday to achieve its objectives. He explained that to encourage willing employers, SURE-P would provide incentives to organisations that admit graduates under their internship scheme.

He appealed to firms and organisations in the public and private sectors to help in the success of the scheme, saying: "The interns could be absorbed by their employers after one year."

He added, "Clearly, there is the urgent need for more firms to participate in this programme and take graduates out of the labour market."

He noted with concern that the various institutions of higher learning in the country were producing over 300,000 graduates yearly, which the system, both public and private, could not absorb.

To tackle the problem, the SURE-P coordinator said the GIS scheme was introduced so that firms could absorb "inexperienced" graduates so that they can gain necessary experiences that would qualify them for places in the corporate world.

He said, "Graduates, under the scheme, will be placed in for profit and non-profit making organisations and selected government agencies, on one-year internship. The interns are expected to acquire professional skills, training and work experience to improve their job placement opportunities.

"The Federal Government will be responsible for paying a monthly stipend of N25,000 to them while participating institutions will be expected to provide adequate opportunities for work and mentoring.

"Among the objective of the scheme is the resolve to enhance the employability of at least 50,000 unemployed graduates in the 36 states of the federation by improving their skills through job placement".

He urged the employers of labour in the state to register with the Corporate Affairs Commission and related bodies for easy assessment of the firms in need of graduates by the programme, adding that it was only firms that were registered with the scheme that would benefit from the partnership with federal government.

Source: Guardian