NYSC: How To Maximize Your One Year As A "Corper"

The one-year mandatory national service imposed on young graduates below the age of 30, if you haven’t already gone through it you probably will soon.

In the past, it was a period graduates looked forward to with high hopes of a better future, the same cannot be said today, many young people are inducted to and released from the scheme every year, a whole year, during which you are paid a token of #19800 only every month before being released into a world filled with millions of unemployed graduates.

Many Corps members start to worry months before passing out because of the state of the country and fear that they are diving into the pool of unemployment like other graduates.

Do you share that concern?

Not to worry, keep reading, I’m confident the answers you seek lie in my next few paragraphs.

This secret has a lot to do with setting goals, want to know a few things about goals?

I’d like you to know that the ability to set goals as a young person is a superpower, and the bridge between goals and achievements is determination and discipline. It is easy to go through my next paragraphs and forget about them the moment you hit the last period.

So before we proceed I want you to quietly mutter these words: “I am a thinker, a doer, an achiever, an excellent student of life and a valuable citizen of this country, I will make my youth service year a memorable one”. Having said those words, I have no doubt that you’re ready for the ride, come with me.

How then do you go about making your service year fruitful?

1. DISCOVER THE OPPORTUNITIES IN YOUR ENVIRONMENT (THERE’S ALWAYS SOMETHING)

Now, this is often the hardest part, it usually hidden, a Corps member who served in Kaduna upon passing out said “What do you expect when corps members who are sent to communities where there is no life for a whole year and yet when they are through there is no employment, the whole thing is a waste of time.”

This is what most people say, but is it true?

The answer is NO, the fact that you are made to serve in a place where nothing appears to be happening doesn’t mean that your whole year has to be a waste, look inwards, there is a skill to learn, a trade to engage in, books to read, preparations to make and relationships to build.

2. LEARN A SKILL

You’re probably thinking “If I had a kobo for every time I have heard this…” But I tell you something, we learn every time whether we want to or not, no knowledge is useless, you are a young, educated and resilient Nigerian and you can learn anything, I repeat, anything within the space of a year, as long as you put your mind to it.

Be it Fashion design, hair styling, cosmetology, food production or agriculture. You can take online professional courses such as customer relationship and entrepreneurial development courses to help facilitate the starting and running of your business after NYSC, and don’t forget to save a few bucks off your allawee for this purpose.

3. PICK UP A TRADE

Products, especially farm produce vary in prices according to geographical locations, for example, Onions in the Northeast, Tubers in the Southwest, Tomatoes in the North West and some parts of the South-south, vegetables, and fruits in the Southeast and so on.

Do you have a commodity that is slightly more expensive where you come from?

Buy them from your state of deployment and these things can be transported to areas where they are not so cheap and sold for higher prices than they were purchased, this has made bucks for a number of youth corps members according to testimonies.

Another practical illustration is a location where there is a scarcity of water, study the environment visibility and make use of the opportunity to make a token. I would advise you to look for legal businesses.

4. MAKE CERTAIN PREPARATIONS

Over 50% of corps members do not intend to stop at B.Sc or HND as the case may be, are you one of such people?

This is a good time to prepare your mind and heart for the postgraduate course of your choice, learn about it, pick an institution, talk to experienced adults, send in applications, acquire funding, you will find that this is enough to make you feel fulfilled at the end of your service year if done properly.

5. READ BOOKS

Did you know that how much you know is a reflection of how much you read?

This could be your one year of knowledge acquisition, visit a library if you have access to one, and if you don’t, do not worry, most of those books are online anyway, see how the minds of these authors work, read about career, marriage, cultures and understand more about the world we live in, this will make you a more productive person at the end of your service year.

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