THE Teachers’ Continuous Training Institute, TCTI, Biase, Cross River State, has been certified as the first Nigerian public institution to be approved as Certiport Authorized Testing Center (CATC) for validation of over 1,000 skills with global/industry certifications.
The institute was established two years ago by the Cross River government as part of efforts to ensure regular training and retraining of teachers across the country.
The CATC license was presented to the governor of Cross River State, Professor Ben Ayade, at an elaborate ceremony at the Cross River State executive council chambers in Calabar recently.
The director-general of the institute, Professor Taoheed Adedoja, in his presentation said the feat by Cross River State would enable the institute to compare with any 21st century smart institute globally.
Nigeria’s representative of Certiport and a leading consultant on Digital Literacy and Emerging Skills Development, Dr Niran Oyekale, in his goodwill message, applauded the state government for its interest in teachers’ development.
He further clarified the importance of providing the institute and by extension, the entire people of Cross River State and beyond, with Certiport’s global platform for skills validation.
According to him, “with the certification, Cross River State is set to take the lead in solving global problems of skills shortages for the current and potential workforce of the state and other states of Nigeria to be adequately empowered with skills for relevance in global digital economy.”
The governor of the state, Professor Ben Ayade, who was excited by the development, promised to give TCTI all the support needed to actualise the global expectations on TCTI in order to provide the needed digital literacy skill acquisition for teachers and other workforce in Nigeria.
Addressing newsmen after the event, Professor Adedoja announced that “TCTI, Biase, will soon commence the phase two of the conduct of baseline assessment to establish the proficiency of the Cross River people in digital literacy for a total of 2,500 workforce comprising primary, secondary, technical and vocational teachers, youths, women, civil servants, and the private sector.
He added that selected participants would undergo intensive 10 days training at the institute for global certifications in specific skill area for employability.
Adedoja also said that the TCTI, Biase, is fully positioned to offer its services in any part of Nigeria to interested organisations, public and private institutions in emerging digital skills development and teacher retraining.
