By 
By Joy Amaka Onweani
Five Code Plateau fellows have started their paid internship in a tech company having successfully completed their eight-month training under the second phase of the Code Plateau scheme.
Code Plateau is designed by the Plateau State Information and Communication Technology Development Agency (PICTDA) to build a pool of highly skilled young people in digital tools.
“Five of our Code Plateau fellows were today accepted into a tech company for a 3-month paid internship. The onboarding process came after two interview sessions. The first interview was done on hacker rank and then followed by a hands-on interview process,” Director General of PICTDA, Mr. Daser David, posted in his social media handle to announce the development.
“Code Plateau will solve the fundamental unemployment problem in Plateau state. Re-skilling our youth and handing them the job entry requirement through placement for internship. These successful five will be developing real-life solutions for the next three months with an option of immediate recruitment,” he added.
The tech-recruits: Perpetual Adojoh, Joshua Miri, Joshua Ajagbe, Lucky Yoila, and Abel Pofi joined the steady growing list of soft skill workers coming out of Plateau State even as tensions mount over violent skirmishes forcing authorities to impose curfew in Jos and neighbouring Bassa, central Nigeria.
An eight-month immersive bootcamp, Code Plateau 2.0 is anchored on a mix of virtual and real-life training sessions targeting to skill up young people with a portfolio of training that covers coding, programming, UI/UX designs, IT basics, and software development among others.
“Amazing; life changing; eye opening; quite enlightening; and quite challenging,” the five Code Plateau fellows summed up their experience in a testimonial video. Watch testimonials of trainees: https://youtu.be/Ppyo99xmQGs
Code Plateau 2.0 consolidates on success of Code Plateau 1.0
Code Plateau 1.0 kicked off two years ago with 80 successful candidates inducted to make the pioneer cohort in 2019 from over 700 screened applicants headlining the core objectives to create new jobs, deepen the employability of young people across sectors, and inspire a new generation of skilled digital entrepreneurs, said Director General of PICTDA, Mr. Daser David, while announcing the start of Code Plateau 2.0 last year August.
Over half the trained hands under Code Plateau 1.0 are either fully employed in various organisations or are already on the pathway to becoming productive entrepreneurs in the NextEconomy, added David.
Plateau fostering future on youth with skills
“We have spent a couple of months teaching them how to develop software and tooling. Today I am proud to say, we have made headway and gradually developing a footprint towards a sustainable model for human capital development. I dare to say Impossible is nonsense in the city of Jos. We thank the Governor of the State, Rt. Hon. Simon Bako Lalong for his continuous support and commitment to skill development in young people – the future of Plateau State,” said Daser.
The Code Plateau is focusing on training the youth of Plateau state in ICT to produce an enormous number of talents which would give birth to the desired technology driven economy.
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The Code Plateau is the flagship of the ‘Silicon Plateau Project’ according to David. It forms the kernel of Governor Lalong’s vision for youth empowerment, employability and an overall new economy for Plateau State.
The program is anchored on “creating talents through a full-time immersive boot camp that is designed for young people who want to start their career in IT and kick start their portfolio of real-life projects that utilize modern tools. The ultimate goal of Code Plateau is to train, nurture and position these fellows in job internship across the diverse technology companies in Nigeria,” David spoke to IT Edge News in Jos.
