Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State has approved the payment of N30,000 as monthly stipends to Ready.Set.Work (RSW) interns. The Special Adviser to the governor on Education, Mr Obafela Bank-Olemoh disclosed this in a statement on Sunday in Lagos.

The RSW is an entrepreneurship and employability initiative of the Lagos State Government for tertiary institution students in the state. It is aimed at equipping graduating students with work ethics to enable them excel in their chosen careers. Bank-Olemoh said the governor also approved N8 million in seed funding for the top five winners of the RSW Business Pitch Competition, whose businesses would be placed in incubation.

He said the beneficiaries would commence their internships and incubation respectively on March 1. The interns, he said, are part of the 2,000 final year students from six tertiary institutions in the state who took part in the 2017 edition of the 13-week intensive Entrepreneurship  and Employability training programme.

Bank-Olemoh said the programme, which held its pilot in 2016 with 500 final year students from three tertiary institutions in Lagos State, was scaled up in 2017 to 12,000 students from six institutions. The institutions include Lagos State University, University of Lagos, Lagos State Polytechnic, and Lagos State College of Health Technology.

Others are Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education, and Michael Otedola College of Primary Education. He also disclosed that preparation for Ready.Set.Work 2018 had commenced.

According to him, the programme will be expanded to train 25,000 students. “About 5,000 final year students will participate in the 13-week face-to-face classes and 20,000 students in their penultimate year will take part in the RSW.