FG urged to mainstream vocational skills centres in schools

AS part of efforts to address the challenges of unemployment and out-of-school children in the country, a non governmental organisation, the Ladi Memorial Foundation (LMF), has asked the Federal Government to implement a policy whereby schools will house centres for skills acquisition.

Speaking while on a courtesy visit to the National Commission for Mass Literacy and Non-Formal Education (NMEC), the executive director of LMF, Osikoya Rosemary Ojochenemi, said having existing schools as centres for vocational learning would attract more participation from youths.

She said: “We started the advocacy which is part of what led to what we are doing today, that there is  a need for more stakeholders to become more interested in vocational training schools.

“Everyone came out of the school system, so why should everyone not give back? We treat schools as if they exist by themselves.

“Today, the schools sit in the communities; rather than duplicating the whole efforts by looking for extra land everywhere for skill centres, let’s make the existing schools in every community a vocational incubation centre.’’

Ojochenemi, explained that “it is easier to build a skill centre within an existing school, like we did in the second year of this project. By so doing, you open up the centre to people who are not in school. Through it, the out-of-school youths and children could come back to school.

“Building vocational centres within an existing school would increase access to the equipment that are available and also increase collaborations.’’

The executive director also lamented that some skilled trades  have been stigmatised by people thereby discouraging youths from learning such trades.

According to her, there is a lot of stigmatisation of skills going on. Most people will not learn certain trades such as ‘auto artisanship.’ To them ‘mechanic’ is a dirty job.

She said teachers, parents and other stakeholders were the people mostly involved in stigmatisation of skills in Nigeria according to the survey carried out by LMF.

“So, increasingly, we are doing a lot of sensitisation and advocacy, that there is need for more stakeholders to be more aware of the benefits of every skill to the society,” she stated.

In his address, the executive secretary of NMEC, Professor Simon Ibor Akpama, commended the efforts of the foundation in training many youths in different skills in the country assuring LMF of the support of his commission.