Nigeria needs skills population to address unemployment, insecurity-DG ITF

-Sets to equip 27,000 youths

From Daniel Dauda, Jos

The director general, Chief executive of the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) said Nigeria needs skills population to serve as a remedy for addressing rising unemployment and insecurity which has engulfed the nation.

Ari acknowledged that acquiring a skills for teeming unemployed population is vital in tackling Nigeria’s socio-economic challenges and actualize growth and development.

It is evident, as studies have shown that the rate of unemployment in Nigeria today is at over 33% as over 23 million Nigerians that are desirous to work but cannot find jobs, mostly because of the absence of requisite skills.

He made the clarion call on Monday at ITF auditorium, centre for excellence, Jos South LGA during the official unveiling of the fund’s strategic plan direction 2022-2025 tagged ” standardization and certification” where he charged Government at all levels, non governmental agencies as well as stakeholders to ensure all hands is on deck to eliminate poverty in Nigeria.

According to him, ” standardization and certification are core aspect of the mandate of the ITF. Specifically, section 2 subsection c and d of the ITF Act 2011, vest the ITF with the responsibility to set training standard in all sectors of the economy and monitor adherence; and evaluate and certify  vocational skills acquired by apprentices, craftsmen and technicians in collaboration with relevant organizations.

” When fully in place, our efforts will lead to the development of a robust National occupational standard (NOS); create a pool of certified apprentices craftsmen and technicians as well as assessors and verifiers as well as create a pool of certified learning and development professionals and a regulated skills training environment”, he noted.

The ITF DG further said the fund is set to refocus technical and vocational skills training for employability and economic growth by facilitating the institutionalization of the national apprenticeship and traineeship system(NATS).

He revealed that “the fund will register as a super  certification centre; extend duration of skills intervention programmes in line with NATS (six months for traineeship and one year for apprenticeship); procure and provide start-up packs for trainees in the succeeding year; design and develop skills intervention programmes; identify and engage accredited skills training centres and certified craftsmen; implement, monitor and follow up intervention programmes and evaluate and certify trainees.

“The intended outcome of this strategy is to have at least a total of 27,000 skilled and employable youths (18,000 trained youths under the NATS and 9,000 youths under the NISDP and other intervention programmes) and increased small medium enterprises (SMEs) and entrepreneurs to meet the nation economic needs.

” We hope to achieve effective and efficient service delivery, satisfied customer base, improve patronage of our services, enhanced revenue generation, and increased number of participants in our programmes by at least 40% annually.

“We will now have three centres for advanced skills training for employment (CASTE) in Lagos, Kano and Jos as well as well-equipped training centres and vocational wings; trained 450 instructors annually; maximize investment and improve our revenue base.”

However, the ITF Boss presented a powerful 3D printed and laptop computer for Daniel Dung Gwom which the fund recently sponsored and won the prize for the best leather work at the recently concluded Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) National award ceremony hosted by the Nigerian Vice President Professor Yemi Osinbajo.