- As DG harps on Fund’s repositioning
BY CHAMBERLAIN ODEY, JOS – The Director-General of the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Sir Joseph Ari, says the Fund has disbursed over N1,628 billion for the Students’ Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) from October 2016 till date.
He said; “The ITF disbursed a total of one billion, six hundred and twenty eight million, six hundred and twenty thousand Naira (N1,628, 620, 000.00) as students and supervisory allowances to 328 tertiary institutions.”
Ari stated that as the ITF’s brain-child, SIWES has continued to deliver on its mandate of providing “students of engineering, technical and allied disciplines, with practical experience of the real work situation they are likely to find on graduation.”
According to him, as part of efforts to improve SIWES, ITF has “stepped up engagements with the supervising agencies and other stakeholders to address some of the problems bedevilling the scheme.”
Speaking on the Public Accountability Programme of the Correspondents’ Chapel, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Plateau State Council, Sir Ari also said the ITF “convened the 13th SIWES Biennial Conference and the SIWES stakeholders meeting”, which “attracted the participation of all the regulatory agencies, the Federal Ministries of Education, Industry, Trade and investment; and Labour and productivity, and other employers of labour.”
He said given the Fund’s extensive latitude and the enormity of its originating mandate, the Fund “entered into collaborations with organisations both locally and internationally for training and technical assistance”.
The ITF boss explained that the effort has secured the Fund’s technical partnership and relationship with foreign outfits such as the United Nation’s Agency for Training and Research (UNITAR), the N-Power Knowledge, Niger Delta University, the National Institute for Mining and Geo-sciences, and the Cement Technology Institute.
Sir Ari further stated that a major output of the Fund influenced by this partnership and collaboration, adding that its research studies, such as the skills gap assessment in six priority areas of the national economy which outcome was a product of collaboration between the ITF and UNIDO.
He stated that the skills gap assessment in metals and solid minerals sector is underway to determine the skills gap in the upstream, midstream, downstream corridors of the mining sub-sector in Nigeria.
On its technical vocational skills acquisition programme, Ari said; “the ITF numerous technical skills acquisition programmes as well as introduced new initiatives including the National Industrial Skills Development Programme, the women Skills Empowerment Programme, and the Skills Development programme for Youths in Construction Trade (CONSEP), among others”.
Sir Ari described the National Industrial Skills Development Programme (NISDP) as ITF’s flagship technical vocational skills acquisition scheme, noting that no fewer than 30,000 youths from all over the country have been trained under the arrangement since 2016.
He also stated that “In the last phase of the programme, new ideas were introduced”, which saw trade areas being streamlined to three to include welding and fabrication, tailoring and fashion designing, and plumbing and pipe fitting.
The Director General expressed happiness that during the period under review, “the issue of certification, which was part of the reasons for the delay in graduation has been resolved”, noting that a graduate of the MSTC is a proud holder of the National Innovative Diploma Certificate (NIDC), which is equivalent to the National Diploma awarded by Polytechnics and Monotechnics.
