By Ijeoma UKAZU
As job demand continues to go digital, the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF has urged young persons to take advantage of digital learning platforms to meet in-demand skills in the workplace.
Making this known at a 2-day media dialogue held in Lekki, Lagos organised by the National Orientation Agency in collaboration with UNICEF, the Programme Specialist for UNICEF, Joannes Yimbesalu described one of the digital platforms named, the ‘Youth Agency Market Place’, YOMA, as an agency created by young people that allows them to build and transform their futures.
Yimbesalu said that 87 percent of YOMA users globally are Nigerian youth adding that, this platform gives them the opportunity to participate in learning, skilling, and social impact task and as they engage with these opportunities, they earn tokens which they can use to redeem on the YOMA marketplace for data, airtime as well as access to premium courses.
He stated that UNICEF is partnering with the government and private sector to give young people the capacity to build and transform their futures and be productive citizens .
The UNICEF Programme Specialist said, “We are passionate about young people and giving them the platform across Africa to be employable, and the key thing is promoting opportunities for these people.
“We need to create this awareness more to promote the opportunity, including in the rural communities, to enable them to be aware and access the opportunities for employment.
“One of the key things is about targeting the most marginalized, and the focus is working with key stakeholders and the media to ensure that no child is left behind,” he added.
Also speaking, the Director of Policy, Planning, Research and Statistics, Ministry of Education, Dr. Adejare Afolabi, said Nigeria Learning Passport, NLP, method with which UNICEF had leveraged to trained over 3,000 facilitators and provided tablets for learning purpose.
Afolabi explained that the initiative is imperative as it would help the children improve their learning with the audio-visual system provided and will reduce abstract learning.
He said, “We are leveraging on the existing NLP, an online/offline platform designed to complement the existing system of imparting knowledge and learning, it’s an initiative of federal, and state governments in partnership with UNICEF.
“We have a number of out-of-school children, and some who are slow in assimilating so this platform will help them listen, watch, learn and understand better what they are being taught in the classroom.
“It’s a complimentary platform used to boost the normal traditional learning system which we are using to reduce and address such issues, especially in places like Makoko and other suburbs.
The Director noted that the idea is to bridge the gap between the fast and the slow learners, adding that every child can learn at his/her own pace, and also revise topics that they can understand and assimilate.
“Even teachers are incorporated in the system, as they have the opportunity platform to teach students by projecting the contents because children of these days learn faster with audiovisual materials.
Earlier, the UNICEF Communication Officer, Blessing Ejiofor stated that the programme is organized to spur the media to support advocacy on digital learning solutions for children and young people with a focus on bridging the digital divide, especially for girls and those in hard-to-reach communities.