The Senior Pastor, Fountain of Life Church Lagos, Pastor Taiwo Odukoya, has canvassed for the acquisition of vocational skills at all levels of education, saying that entrepreneurial training is one of the shortest routes to financial independence.
Odukoya, who spoke during the eighth graduation of Grace Springs Vocational Centre in Lagos, noted that the present realities in the country demand that vocational skills should be added to degrees acquired in universities as white collar jobs are no longer readily available.
“It has been proven that those with additional vocational and entrepreneurial skills are having an edge in the marketplace, and they are the ones exhibiting financial freedom and impacting lives on a daily basis,” he said.
The clergyman, who was represented by Dr. Ebenezer Kayode, said that the centre was established by the church four years ago as a non-profit making outfit with community based curriculum to eradicate poverty and enhance the financial status of Nigerians.
While charging the graduates numbering over 100 to utilise whatever training they had acquired from the centre to influence others, Odukoya also urged them to cultivate entrepreneurship mindset, and always put God first in everything they do.
In his address, the Executive Secretary, Lagos State Technical and Vocational Education Board, Mr. Olawunmi Gasper, who was represented by Mr. Laolu Oguntuyi, commended the centre for equipping students with vocational and entrepreneurship skills without religious prejudice.
He challenged the students not to toy with integrity, entrepreneurship, creativity, self- motivation and networking.
Also, the principal of the centre, Mrs. Yetunde Holloway, implored the graduating students to make judicious use of the skills they had acquired, urging them to be good ambassadors of the centre.
The graduates after months of extensive training were certified competent in different vocations such as tailoring and styling; soap and cream making; soft furnishing; shoe making; catering; plumbing, bead-craft, jewellery and accessories making and catering.