Critical -Assessment Of NDE. Entrepreneurship Development Programme; Graduate Scheme And Apprenticeship Scheme

Abstract

In the contemporary times , government all over the world have at one time or the other been confronted with various societal problems . The most serious of a ll those problems is the problem of unemployment. The consequences of unemployment to any developed or developing economy cannot be underrated. This is way every government that wishes to live up to the expectations and aspirations of its citizenry has •' t onto s tem the tide of unemployment in this country by providing alternative sources of employment for the entire citizenry. Nigeria is one of the developing countries in the world that has experienced the problems of unemployment especially in the beginning of the 1980s. The problem of unemployment was so much that even graduates of tertiary institutionsncould not find any work to do either in the public or the private sectors. Realising the consequences of unemployment especially to the nations economic and social development, the Federal Gover nment of Nigeria had to improvise the means through which the ugly phenomenon could be curbed. Sequel to this, the Federal Government established in 1986 the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) through which its schemes encouraged entrepreneurship development programmes for school vi UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA NSUKKA leavers . Prominent among them are t he Gr aduate Scheme and the Apprentice-ship scheme wpich have enabled many unempl oyed youths to metamorphose not only int o successful entrepreneurs but also as employers of labour .However, the question then is, how far has these schemes been able t o achieve t he objectives for which t hey were set, and to what extent has the unemployed citizens been able to benefit from. these entrepreneurship development programmes? I t is as a resulb of the above that this study made a critical assessment of the NDE entrepreneurship development programme, especially as it concerns the Graduate Scheme and apprenticeship Scheme with special emphasis on Enugu State. In order to carry out the study, both primary and secondary data were extensively made use of. Oral interview , ', was conducted with t he management staff of the National Directorate of Employment, Enugu Tables, simple percentages and absolute number were the tools used to analyses the data for the study. The findings of the study revealed among other things that the NDE schemes have helped to upgrade the social and economic status of the nation's .youths. Based on the findings" several recommendations were made, among which is that government should encourage loan vii UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA NSUKKA beneficiaries of the NDE programmes to venture into areas o f agriculture and other small scale enterprises. For a successful study to be carried out, this research was divided into five chap t e r s , and each of the five chapters was made explicit in the main text.