This program was conceived and started in the year 2003, as a poverty alleviation training.
It was born out of a burden to reduce the number of youths that walked  the streets aimlessly daily. It is obvious that the Nigerian economy cannot readily accommodate its growing number of school leavers, therefore the number of unemployed people continue to increase daily. This puts a strain on member of each family that are gainfully employed, which makes even the rich poorer in a sense.

In May 2003, as a first step and trial run, we inaugurated a vocational training program whereby these youths were brought together to teach them skills they could use to earn a living. In that first session, about 50 youths were trained in three skill areas – millinery, heading and clay craft.

By the next program in August 2003, the program had five skill sessions – millinery, beadwork, barbing, soap making and cake baking, along with business management skills, to over 100 youths.

Many of them started small businesses which paid their way into higher institutions and put food on their tables.
Since then, the program has grown into a very large one and with an increase in the number of those wanting to participate; we looked for a permanent venue for training sessions to be on-going, year round.

This led to the lease of an 8 room accommodation in August 2005, where training goes on daily in 10 different vocational areas.

To date, the center has trained more than 500 people, which now include Christians, Muslims, free thinkers, housewives, early retirees, married, single, widowed, mainly unemployed, etc. Success rate is over 90%,  in that many trainees come back with testimonies of a transformed life. Some  testimonies are documented and reading them is quite emotional.

In some of the training, for example the December 2005 session, materials were insufficient and there was inadequate space to train  the number of people that besieged the center.

Thus, though painful, many were turned back, asking them to register for another session 2006.

In May 2006, there was a FREE Business Development Seminar, to help young people start grow their own businesses. This program was tagged, ‘Becoming your own Boss’. Three prominent business entrepreneurs trained the attendees on Setting up a small Business, Marketing & Business Finance.

in June 2006, we started training people with physical disabilities - Down's Syndrome. This has been a beautiful success story.

In October 2006, we had  Free Training tagged " Free Yourself" to coincide with Nigeria's 46th Independence anniversary. We trained 73people in 6 skill areas.

The vision of the center is to train about 5000 people yearly, and this will transform into at least 20,000 people OFF the streets.
This is because each person trained, subsequently becomes an employer of other people. This multiplier effect has been observed in those that we have trained.

We have records of all our programs. We have a centre that you can visit at anytime.

RECOGNITION AND ACCOLADES 

1. Recognized by the US Embassy in Nigeria
2. Accredited by the National Board for Technical Education
3. Accredited by the Federal ministry of Education, Nigeria

VOCATIONAL TRAINING, AT ITS BEST, WILL TRANSFORM LIVES OF THOSE TRAINED.
                                                YOU TOO CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.