By MBAFAN ADE, Abuja
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/wealth creation, the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) has declared 2018 as a year of delivery, the Director General/Chief Executive of the Fund, Sir Joseph Ari has said.
In line with this declaration, the Fund is set to train 13,000 Nigerians across the country in 11 vocational skills.
ITF’s Deputy Director/Head, Public Affairs Unit, Suleyol Fred Chagu, who made this known in a statement on Friday, said the implementation of the programmes would commence on various dates between July and August and terminate in November, 2018.
According to the statement, Ari, who was addressing a meeting of Area managers of ITF Area Offices and Managers of the Fund’s Training Centres at the ITF Centre for Excellence, Bukuru – Jos, recently explained that the declaration was informed by the growing realization that accelerated skills acquisition was the only way to stem the rampant unemployment especially among the youths.
He said that governments all over the world have turned to skills acquisition, which is the universal currency of the 21st century, to arm their citizenry with skills for employability and growth.
The DG listed the skills programmes billed for implementation to include the National Industrial Skills Development Programme (NISDP), the Women Skills Empowerment Programme (WOSEP), Skills Training and Empowerment Programme for the Physically Challenged (STEPC), Air Conditioning and Refrigeration, and Designing and Garment Making.
Within the same period, the DG said five other training programmes including Post-Harvest Techniques and Product Development, Aqua-Culture/Fish Farming, Manure Production, Crop Production/Greenhouse Technology and Poultry Farming, that are aimed at equipping Nigerian farmers with the requisite skills for improved farm yield will be implemented using the Galilee International Management Institute (GIMI) Model.
Noting the focus on agriculture, Ari said, “The emphasis on skills for the agricultural sector was informed by the fact that it is the occupation of majority of Nigerians and a key component of the economic diversification agenda of the Federal Government.”
“The programmes, which are mostly targeted at the youths, women and the physically challenged, were carefully selected based on projected value addition to Nation’s economy and the individual beneficiaries,” he added.
Apart from the NISDP that will be implemented in all the states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the DG said that the other training programmes will only be implemented in some selected states.
He therefore called on the states and even the local governments to collaborate with the Fund for a multiplier effect of programmes.
He urged the State Governments and other stakeholders to sponsor additional trainees for the programmes but noted that such stakeholders would be required to cover the monthly stipends of the trainees, provide start-up packs for such additional trainees and also offset any allowances for the master-craftsmen that would be retained as a result of the additional trainees.
It will be recalled that in 2017, the ITF trained over 150,000 Nigerians in various trades and crafts that are today earning sustainable livelihoods either as paid employees or as entrepreneurs that are even employing others.