To fill the education gap in Nigeria, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), supported by the Delegation of German Industry and Commerce in Nigeria (AHK Nigeria), has collaborated with other organisations to train 300 students and 60 teachers from low-income communities in Nigeria on Information Technology (IT).
At the event, where Siemens Stiftung launched the first-of-its-kind hands-on Information Technology (IT) training project “BeMINT” for high-school students and recent school graduates in Lagos, on Thursday, Executive Director, Empowering Africans Through Education Initiative (EAE), Chinenye Ezeakor, said the EAE is a non-profit organisation founded in 2018 with a commitment to supporting science and technology education mathematics (STEM) in Africa through tailored programmes and partnerships that introduce hands-on learning, mentorship, and training opportunities for teachers, students, and fresh secondary school graduates.
She said that to further “Expand our work and uphold our promise to improve the lives of Africans through STEM education, we are partnering with Siemens Stiftung and the Delegation of German Industry and Commerce in Nigeria (AHK Nigeria) to introduce the BeMINT Project in Nigeria. It is a project that aims to improve labour market opportunities for youths from low-income households in Nigeria with Lagos as the flagship state.”
She said that the career fair introduced new well-trained batches of interns into the labour market and their partner companies were given benefit from the programme by selecting already trained interns to work in their organisations for a month for free while Siemens Stiftung takes full responsibility for their stipends.
The training sessions were facilitated by the Siemens Stiftung, in cooperation with the Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board, a local NGO EAE, the Delegation of German Industry and Commerce in Nigeria (AHK), and local private companies.
Ezeakor said that Be-MINT is a training and internship programme that provides fresh and senior secondary school graduates with practical and curriculum-oriented topics in soft, digital, and specialised skills for the science and technology workforce.
“It also provides the top 150 students with internship opportunities with reputable organisations during which they would have access to practical knowledge and work experience.”
Programme Coordinator, EAE, Angel Benson, said that over 230 students were trained in Nigeria and about 150 students were given internships in Nigeria.
Benson, who said that the students were trained physically for one-week and virtually for six weeks, added: “After the training, we are matching up with organizations for industrial training, which are all paid for.
“All the times they came for the training, the students were given lunch, as well as transport allowances. Also for their internship, they were given stipends to provide for the cost of feeding and transportation allowance.
“Our the aim is that at the end of the training, the students must have been prepared for university education and will understand the choices they make in their courses of study.
“These students have just finished their WAEC examinations and we are trying to give them a better understanding of what they want to do.”
She said that the EAE, which has been operational since 2018, trains the students in STEM education, vocational training, photography, among others. This project has been on for about 10 months now. It is being done in collaboration with Lagos State government and doing other projects in the country.”
