Graduates of NILDS HND programme to serve in NYSC

Holders of Higher National Diploma (HND) of  the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) will now serve the mandatory one-year National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) scheme.

Ladi Hamalai, Director General of the Institute, disclosed this in Abuja during the matriculation ceremony for the 2017/2018 NILDS-HND programme in Official Reporting and Parliamentary Administration.

NILDS is the training and research arm of the National Assembly.

The DG said the Institute had in collaboration with the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) gotten approval and full accreditation for the course.

Hamalai added that it was in the light of this that future graduates of the HND programme would now be qualified to undergo the mandatory one-year NYSC scheme.

The DG said that the course became necessary due to the dearth of official parliamentary reporters as well as other qualified legislative staff.

Hamalai said that participants in the course are expected to develop knowledge in: Keyboarding, Speed Writing/Shorthand Development, Hansard Manual Styles, Bound Volume Management, Desktop Publishing along with other Information Technology Tools and Record Management Practices.

She added that the lecturers as well as instructors had been carefully selected to promote Scholar-Practitioner approach in the course delivery.

She therefore congratulated all the matriculating students for taking advantage of the unique opportunity to improve their skills, knowledge and experience in reporting parliamentary proceedings accurately and comprehensively.

She stressed that NILDS was the first institution in Nigeria to run the programme adding that it was in a bid to “provide a holistic and integrated capacity building programmes for all aspects of the legislative functions in Nigeria.

“It is now widely accepted that competent technical legislative staff are essential to the effective functioning of the legislature and by extension in building a strong and virile bureaucracy.

“The NILDS-HND programme complements the various postgraduate programmes presently being run by the Institute in affiliation with the University of Benin. It is targeted at providing opportunity for lower and middle level personnel in the legislature particularly who do not possess relevant requirements for the Postgraduate programmes, to improve their educational attainment and advance their careers”.

Speaking at the event, Clerk to the National Assembly, Sani Omolori commended NILDS for pursuing and getting accreditation to run the programme.

He said that the programme would go a long way in getting professionals to handle Official Reporting in both the federal and state legislatures.

He urged the matriculating students to take the programme seriously.