RSW: TRAINING PROGRAMME FOR FINAL-YEAR STUDENTS ENDS

…As LASU Centre Leads Global Challenge Competition

The 2018 edition of the Ready.Set.Work, RSW, training and empowerment initiative of the Lagos State Government for final year students of eight tertiary institutions across the State finally came to an end during the weekend with some of the beneficiaries vying in a business pitching competition for a cash award from the State government.

The business pitch according to the Special Adviser to the Governor on Education, Mr. Obafela Bank-Olemoh afforded the students the opportunity of coming up with different business ideas with the intention of expanding and developing their business ideas through the assistance of the State Government.

Bank-Olemoh, who addressed the Ready.Set.Work participants at the campus of Lagos State University, LASU, disclosed that the best three business ideas have been identified by the panel of judges, adding that the winners would be announced on the 30th of October at Landmark Events Centre where the Governor himself will be in attendance to make presentations to the graduates.

“The owners of the three best ideas would be funded by the State government and also placed in an incubation centre in order to help them to fully develop their business ideas”, Bank-Olemoh said.

He stated that the RSW has impacted the lives of over 5,000 graduates in line with the mandate given to Ministry of Education by the Governor, just as he expressed confidence that the initiative has produced the best graduates in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. 

The Special Adviser added, “Beyond the investment of the State government in this RSW initiative and efforts of the volunteered facilitators, is the mindset change of over 5000 final year students of eight higher institutions in Lagos and the fact that this programme which started three years ago is getting better each year and employers of labour are now looking out for graduates from Ready Set Work”.

According to him, with the series of mindset reorientation and basic life skills imparted to the participants, the graduates can now positively impact the local economy of the State and the country at large.

In the same vein, the LASU centre of the RSW emerged the overall winner of the Global Challenge educational contest among the three centres, while University of Lagos (UNILAG) came second and Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH) came third.

The inter-centre quiz competition cuts across areas like Sports, Entertainment, Current Affairs, and Geography among others.While allaying the fears of continuity of the programme after the tenure of the present administration, the Special Adviser said that he was confident of the continuation of the programme considering the wide success rate already recorded by the programme.

He advised the students to be optimistic, stressing that the mindset of possibilities and ‘No excuses’ already instilled in them during the training must be allowed to prevail in all their endeavours.