How SURE-P Got Me A Job At Hotels.ng - Victor Jubril

Life after graduation is like a box of chocolates. You never quite know which one you’re going to get. At the eve of my graduation, rumors and statistics of the high rate of graduate unemployment in the country caused me so much fear, but I wasn't alone in this fear. Virtually all youths have to worry about the unemployment rate in the country as they ponder about the labour market. I remember having a chat with some of my class mates after our final exams in the university. As the discussion continued, I noticed the appalling look on everyone's face. We lamented on how the jobs in the country were not enough to go round. Fresh graduates are being demanded to produce at least one year working experience before being offered a job - much like asking a virgin to produce a proof of pregnancy. Being fully aware of this problem, former President Goodluck Jonathan decided to cushion the effect by establishing the Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS) through his Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Program (SURE-P) as a social safety net. The program aimed to enhance the employability of graduate youths with job and apprenticeship opportunities that would expose graduates to skills and experiences that could improve their relevance to employers of labour. Firms could accept the graduates and commit to giving them responsibilities commensurate with their status as well as training and mentoring them. The Federal Government in turn, provides a stipend of N30,000 for the graduate interns. I applied for the program as a last resort because I felt I could be one of the lucky few that would secure a job that could pay more than the N30,000 monthly stipends. I applied for several jobs and got few invites for interview. I got a job offer but the salary wasn't enough to take care of my basic needs. I became discouraged. One Saturday morning, while thinking about how long the job-hunt was going to last, I received an SMS from SURE-P/GIS stating that I was invited to a job fair. At the time, I had forgotten about the program since I applied for 4 months without any response. On the day of the job fair, I went to the venue and was matched with Hotel Booking Limited (Hotels.ng). Hotels.ng is one of the few companies (if not the only one as far as I know) who understand the problem the Federal Government was trying to solve and decided to contribute her own quota. On my first day at Hotels.ng, I met three other interns who were resuming with me. After a brief discussion with Mark Essien (CEO of Hotels.ng), our joy knew no bounds. He informed us that we would be put on the company's staff payroll. Our monthly stipends from SURE-P was only going to complete our renumeration by the company. Our take home was more than just the stipends. After 5 months of job-hunt, I found my niche. It was exhilarating.   Stipend was paid for only January and February. We ended up surviving on the amount the company was paying while hoping that SURE-P would pay it's backlogs. As at the time of this writing, SURE-P has commenced payment of outstanding stipends nationwide. I hope my outstanding stipends of 10 months (March to December, 2015) would be paid soon. After finishing my one year Graduate Internship in December, 2015, I am proud to still be a part of the great team of Hotels.ng.