The Prince’s Trust International, a non-profit organisation founded by King Charles III of England, has debuted in Nigeria to solve the global crisis of youth unemployment.
The launch, which took place on Wednesday at a reception in Lagos, was attended by high-ranking officials, including the Deputy British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Ben Llewellyn-Jones.
Speaking at the event, Llewellyn-Jones stated that the PTI’s presence in Nigeria will help to bridge the existing skills gap by providing more young people with access to excellent training that would make them more employable.
He said, “This is the launch of the Prince’s Trust International initiative in Nigeria to help train young people and get them ready for work to bridge the gap that we have with respect to youth unemployment and youth underemployment here in Nigeria.
“So, it is a really positive initiative. His Royal Highness is the President of the Prince’s Trust. The initiative is trying to reach more countries, Nigeria being the latest. The PTI is a charity. It is in line with the UK government’s ambition in Nigeria to help young people get jobs, get the proper training and the proper skills.
“It is about training. It depends on the kinds of roles young people want to take up. It is about providing them with modern workplace skills, modern workplace etiquette and the ways in which they can approach things, helping them with some of the softer skills and some of the harder skills as well.”
Prince’s Trust International CEO Will Straw indicated that the programme was supposed to launch after King Charles’ visit to Nigeria in 2018, but that its launch was postponed due to the spread of the Covid-19 virus.
He claims that during the past 18 months, the charity has been preparing young people for professional life.
Straw said, “Prince’s Trust is nearly half a century old. It was founded by King Charles when he was the Prince of Wales in the UK in 1976. It has grown to be the largest charity in the UK, supporting a million people. In 2015, the King founded Prince’s Trust International with a mission to work with local partners around the world to tackle the youth unemployment crisis.
“In 2018, he visited Nigeria, and as we heard this evening, he asked government officials, he asked business leaders whether his trust could support employment efforts here in Nigeria and in Ghana. The answer was yes. The expertise that we have could help with local efforts. So, we began with the support of our Africa advisory board, which includes great business figures in Nigeria like Atedo Peterside and Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede to explore how we can set this programme up.”
