The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) says 660 women across the 33 local government areas in Oyo state will undergo training in cosmetology in five centres in the state.
Mrs Olayemi Olayinka, the Oyo State Coordinator of the NDE, made the disclosure on Friday, during the flag off and orientation programme for the trainees at the NDE skill acquisition centre in Ibadan.
Olayinka said the beneficiaries would receive training in cosmetology skills such as production of pomade, liquid soap, detergent, insecticide, hair creams and perfumes among others.
She said after the training, the skills would enable the women become self-reliant, thereby improve their standard of living.
“As an agency, we believe in the dynamics of capacity building of the unemployed women, making them to be generating income and more importantly to be self-employed.
“Today, 660 women across the 33 local government areas will start training in cosmetology.
”After the necessary tutorial training, it is expected that they would become self-reliant and agent of change in their respective locality and the country at large.” she said.
Olayinka admonished the beneficiaries to maximise the opportunity provided by the federal government through NDE by taking the all aspects of the training package seriously.
She implored the master trainers to diligently transfer the required skills to the beneficiaries of the programme by ensuring the delivery of high quality training they were known for.
He emphasised that the calibre of trainees they develop and produce would largely depend on the quality of training the trainers were able to impact.
In his remarks, Mr Paul Ilori, the Head of Department, Vocational Skills Development, NDE, Oyo State, said the beneficiaries would undergo intensive training for two weeks in five NDE skills acquisition training centres.
According to him, the centres are in Ibadan, Ogbomosho, Kishi, Iseyin and Igbo-Ora.
Ilori said the beneficiaries would be given equipment to set up their businesses after the training, which would make them have means of income and improve their living standard.
Some of the trainees, Mrs Tosin Ojediran and Mrs Gbemisola Rauf, commended the federal government for the initiative.
The duo expressed optimism that acquisition of skills in cosmetology would take them out of poverty and make them to be self-reliant, instead of looking up to their husbands for domestic expenses.
Also, Mrs Mabel Williams, the state Women leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) lauded the efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari for prioritising programmes beneficial to women.
Williams urged the participants to see the training as an opportunity that would turn around their lives from being jobless to self-employed level.
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