The Digital Programme Management System is an initiative to upgrade the job creation programme database and digitalize programme management system for web-based real-time functioning towards enhanced operational efficiency, information accessibility and administrative decision-making.
The transition to Digital Programme Management System (DPMS) is vital to the establishment of a customized portal-based programme administration and information management system that will enhance programme operations, information storage, user accessibility, profiling and tracking of programme beneficiaries and service delivery process flow.
The Digital Programme Management System (DPMS) is an online simulation of the implementation, administration and operation of the job creation programmes from input stage (beneficiary application/enrollment) to output stage (beneficiary completion/graduation).
JCDPMS will function as a full-cycle virtual facility for data organisation, collation, storage and retrieval for administrative operations, management decision-making, status checking of programme operations and tracking of historical and current performance of the programmes.
The JCDPMS is a management innovation driven by the need to take advantage of the advances in information and communication technologies. It is also for the development of a fit-for-purpose, optimally operational and easily accessible programme administration model.
At full completion, the key features of the JCDPMS, which will be hosted as a web portal, comprises mutually inclusive items/products/elements as follows:
We are confident that this innovative virtual programme management interface will enhance functional and dynamic interaction with trainees, trainers, partners, stakeholders and the general public. It will create universal visibility of the operations and activities of the job creation programme and ease communication and information flow, improve administrative efficiency and operational transparency. This prototype JCDPMS will change the dynamics of administration, training, oversight and management systems with live reports.
Skills Training and Entrepreneurship Programme (STEP) is one of the flagship job creation models of the Delta State Government, since 2015. The goal of STEP is to train, equip, establish and mentor unemployed youths, graduates and school leavers, with the right mindset, practice-oriented skills, entrepreneurial abilities and resources to become self-employed business owners. The programme is an integral component of the state government’s strategy for tackling the scourge of youth unemployment. STEP training runs in three successive phases. Phase I is the Orientation and Personal Effectiveness Training (OPET). Phase II is the learning and acquisition of practice-oriented income-yielding skills. Phase III is the Entrepreneurship and Business Management Training (EBMT). Across the three phases of training, quality assurance is deliberately implemented through standard sets of training guides and modules. Hence, this booklet contains skills training modules under STEP Phase II training segment.
Each training module outlines the key training or learning tasks and their constituent activities or actions based on monthly, weekly and daily schedule. The module represents the critical minimum proficiency that should be delivered by the trainer (or attained by the trainee). However, in delivering the training, STEP trainers are encouraged to flexibly apply and deploy experience-based techniques and practices that enhance skills learning and proficiency of trainees. These training modules serve as essential yardstick and resource material for STEP trainers and trainees. For stakeholders, the modules show the quality assurance and rigorous content that characterize programme planning and execution. By exposing the scope and content of skills training under the different enterprises, the modules make the training process result-oriented, transparent, predictable, credible and monitorable. It is therefore required that STEP trainers and trainees use these training modules accordingly.
STEP encompasses the training of youths in different skills/trades and helping them to establish their own enterprises for self-employment and to become employers of labour. Graduands of the programme are branded as STEPreneurs. STEP covers the following skills/enterprise categories:
* Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs): computer hardware maintenance/repairs, smart phones and PC tablets.
* Building and construction services: POP-interlocking-tiling-painting-masonry; welding & fabrication; electrical installation/repairs (including solar energy); and plumbing.
* Handicrafts: fashion design and tailoring; and furniture and upholstery.
* Personal services: Hair dressing and makeover; decoration and event management; and catering and confectionary/baking.
* Audiovisual technology services: light and sound technicians; cinematography (visual cameraman); set designers; production managers; and audiovisual editors
* The skill areas are continually being modified in response to the needs/preferences of participants and realities of the job market.
YAGEP involves the training and development of youth entrepreneurs in agriculture and agribusiness and equipping participants to establish their own enterprises. This programme is an integral part of the administration’s agenda to curb youth unemployment and develop the agricultural economy of the state for wealth creation outside the oil sector. Graduands of YAGEP are branded as YAGEPreneurs. The development of the non-oil sector will promote broad-based employment, reduce economic dependence on oil sector, improve fiscal sustainability over time, ensure sustainable development and shared prosperity for all Deltans.
Under YAGEP, unemployed youths aged 18-35 years are trained and established in their chosen agricultural enterprises, including poultry, piggery, fishery, crop production and agroprocessing. The instructional and hands-on practical agricultural training takes place at accredited agricultural training centres over a period, depending on the enterprise. The training covers agricultural “technical” skills and knowledge spanning the entire enterprise production cycle. For crops, the training covers land preparation, planting, production and cultural practices, crop management, weeding, harvesting and farm-gate tasks.
For livestock/fisheries, the practical training covers sourcing and management of starter stocks, feeding practices, animal health and disease prevention, harvesting and other relevant issues. With regard to agroprocessing, the hands-on training covers the stages of transforming raw outputs into processed products and by-products, processing equipment and technologies, product packaging and standardization.
The starter packs for YAGEPreneurs vary from one agricultural enterprise to another. In the case of livestock enterprises, the starter pack includes livestock houses, operating facilities, amenities and inputs. As regards crops, the starter packs include site planning, land preparation, seeds/seedlings, fertilizer, agrochemicals. In addition, participants are given buffer stipends for a limited period during enterprise gestation as well as some working capital to purchase inputs and/or working materials.
An important approach to establishing YAGEPreneurs is co-locating them in designated clusters. Co-locating YAGEPreneurs is beneficial for more effective targeting, higher cost efficiency, easier performance tracking and more accurate impact evaluation. To this end, the Office of the Chief Job Creation Officer working with the Ministry of Agriculture, has identified and designated land locations that could be developed into YAGEP clusters for crop production and fishery. Similarly, the trainees under agroprocessing enterprise category are organized into groups of entrepreneurs. Each group is supported with start-up agroprocessing mills.