EFFECT OF YOUTH EMPOWERMENT SCHEME ON BENEFICIARIES IN DELTA STATE

Abstract

The study assessed the Skills Training and Entrepreneurship Programme (STEP) on youth empowerment in Delta State, Nigeria. The population of the study comprised all the 5042 beneficiaries in the seven (7) implementation circles since the inception of the STEP. The Taro Yamane formula and proportionate stratified sampling was used to arrive at a sample size of 358 respondents for the study. Primary data was collected. The version 23.0 IBM-SPSS Statistical Package for Social Science was used for the data analysis. Data were analyzed using percentage, mean, standard deviation, and linear regression analysis. The grand mean of 2.77 was above the 2.55 benchmark value, which means that the respondents participated fully and actively in all the activities. Increased employment opportunities had the highest mean score of (2.73, SD = 0.50), meaning that STEP has actually transformed the livelihood of participants by improving their income, improving their household well-being, making them employed and employers of labour, and also increasing their productive assets. The result shows adjusted R² = 0.081 and F(7, 350) = 5.497, p = 0.000. This means that the model is statistically significant; hence the hypothesis that there is no significant influence of levels of participation in the STEP activities on selected livelihood outcomes was rejected. It was recommended that since high participation suggests strong interest, but sustaining the interest requires financial empowerment, the government should improve access to capital for the participant to expand their business.