- 13,000 Nigerians on line; 150,000 trained in 2017
BY EDMOND ODOK, ABUJA – Director-General of Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Sir Joseph Ari, says 13,000 Nigerians will be trained in 11 vocational skills before December 2018 ending as part of Federal Government’s policy on job and wealth creation in the country.
He also disclosed that over 150,000 Nigerians were trained by the Fund on various trades and crafts in 2017 with the beneficiaries already earning sustainable livelihoods as paid workers or entrepreneurs that have workers in their employ.
Sir Ari said that going forward; Nigeria needs accelerated skills acquisition as the most important path to engendering sustainable growth and halting the rising unemployment rate, especially among Nigerian youths.
He said; “In a renewed effort to equip Nigerians with skills in line with its mandate and to ensure the achievement of the Federal Government’s policy on job and wealth creation, the Industrial Training Fund has declared 2018 as a year for training.”
A statement by Mr Suleyol Chagu, Head of Public Affairs Unit, ITF in Abuja, said the Director General unveiled the plan at a meeting with managers of the Fund’s Training Centre in Jos, Plateau State.
According to him, “The implementation of the programmes will commence on various dates between July and August and terminate in November”, adding that the decision was based on the knowledge and understanding that curbing the rising rate of unemployment, especially among youths, can only come through a properly designed process that would speed-up skills acquisition by youths across the nation.
He said governments globally have been deploying skills acquisition as the 21st century common currency to equip their citizenry with skills for employment and sustainable growth.
The ITF boss said among the skills programmes listed for implementation are the National Industrial Skills Development Programme; Women Skills Empowerment Programme; Designing and Garment Making; Air Conditioning and Refrigeration, and Skills Training and Empowerment Programme for the Physically Challenged
Sir Ari also explained that the Fund has lined up five other training programmes for implementation within the period. These are: Post-Harvest Techniques and Product Development; Aqua-Culture and Fish Farming; Manure Production; Crop Production and Greenhouse Technology; and Poultry Farming.
Maintaining that these programmes would equip Nigerian farmers with requisite skills for improved farm yield, Ari said they would all be implemented using the Galilee International Management Institute Model for effective service delivery.
He said in line with the Federal government’s economic diversification agenda, focusing on basic skills in agriculture is based on the understanding that most Nigerians are now involved in the sector, adding, “The programmes, which are mostly targeted at youths, women and the physically challenged, were carefully selected based on projected value addition to the nation’s economy and the individual beneficiaries,”
The Director General said other training programmes would be pursued in selected states, just as he expressed ITF’s readiness to collaborate with States and local governments that are disposed to drawing the benefits and multiplier effects inherent in the various programmes.
On sponsorship of additional trainees for the programmes, Sir Ari challenged state governments and other stakeholders to take up such responsibility, noting that such sponsorship would cover the trainees’ monthly stipends; provide start-up packs; and also offset allowances for the master-craftsmen retained to handle the additional trainees.
