Senator Faduyile empowers over 300 Ondo South youths on IT,AI training
By Steve Ovirih.
In his bid to equip the youths of Ondo South with innovation on practical IT training and empowerment in the area of Artificial intelligence, Distinguished Senator Prof Dayo Faduyile, OON has thrown his weight behind an online/rigorous virtual training for the youths of his district.
The virtual training which began on Thursday, October 1st had participants across Ondo South to the tune of over 490 youths who registered online. According to the Resource Facilitator,an Abuja based IT expert,Dr.Olatunji Oguntoye, the online training/empowerment targeted 300 participants but 490 people registered online. “We planned for 300 participants instead 490 people registered online while over 100 joined the live zoom sessions on average across days of the training and more than 400 watched on YouTube, drawing interest not only from Ondo South but from other Senatorial districts in Ondo State.
“As for performance, about 75 percent of our participants were complete beginners and we built the entire training curriculum around that reality. Engagement was strong ; the training was practical and hands on so the trainees were not just listening,they were creating real images, videos and documents during the training sessions themselves,” Olatunji Oguntoye noted.
It will be recalled that during his Senatorial election campaign tour, Distinguished Senator Prof. Dayo Faduyile had been very particular about innovative skill acquisition and youth empowerment, while maintaining that the growth Ondo South long for could be sustained based on how open the youths are to innovations in the area of information technology and allied trend bordering on coding and Artificial intelligence(AI).
Marking his 100 Days in office and which coincided with the 66th Independence Anniversary Day, the online training was flagged off. Prior to the training, awareness fliers had run on different platforms across Ondo South which allowed people to register for the training online.
Senator Faduyile speaking with newsmen on the expectations from the AI training said it is a skill acquisition effort of his administration geared towards equipping youths of Ondo South with practical innovative skills that address the trend in the area of Artificial intelligence which empowers the participants to have income -generating AI skills,enhancing their competence in creating adverts and logos to producing videos, building presentations and even starting an affiliate business with zero capital. “It takes an empowered youth to see the reality of a future that will be AI driven ; a future where innovation in information shrewdness based on practical IT skills will differentiate the literate from the illiterate and a future where what you know and your can-do skills no matter your discipline will be hinged on how well you can put the new trends in the area of information technology into perfect use.
“So, we don’t want the youths of Ondo South to be left behind, we want them to have Artificial intelligence skills as a foundation which they can build on and from which they can project a leverage that will give them the necessary background idea which will stand them in a good stead going forward,” Senator Faduyile noted.
Faduyile added, “the prospect is simple and it closes a real digital empowerment opportunity gap: for the youths of Ondo South, this training gives them the leverage to now have access to the same tools being used in Lagos, Abuja and around the world at no personal cost to them and good enough every participant who practices what they learned walks away with a skill they can monetize immediately either through their own business or by promoting someone else’s through the skills they have acquired.”
