ITF upgrades three centres for Advanced Skills for employment

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3 years ago

The Industrial Training Fund (ITF) has concluded arrangements to upgrade three of its skills training centres to Centres for Advanced Skills Training for Employment (CASTE) to provide enabling environment to foster creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship and employability through its skill training.

The Director-General of ITF Sir, Joseph Ari who disclosed this at a Media Briefing on the ITF Strategic Policy Direction in Jos pointed out that the Fund will equip the Training Centres with state-of-the-art facilities, partner with relevant stakeholders for training placement as well as identify the competitive advantage of the centres for production purposes.

Sir Ari stressed that the Fund will also introduce instructors’ training in three designated Skills Training Centres, advertise and deploy the Centre’s facilities and equipment for commercial use, engage trainees in the design and development of products and establish creative and innovative clinics.

“In addition, it will develop entrepreneurs and rename all Industrial Skills Training Centres as ITF Skills Training Centres (ITF STCs).

With this strategy, 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; train 450 Instructors annually; maximize investment and improve our revenue base”.

According to him, the new Policy framework if fully implemented will place ITF in better stead to fully implement it’s mandate and drive the achievement of Federal Government’s goals with particular reference to unemployment, poverty and their associated consequences.

“Our belief is premised on the fact that countries all over the world that had dealt with and have successfully solved the problems that we are currently confronting today, did it through a greater commitment to skills acquisition. For instance, to handle its youth bulge in the 70s and 80s, China under the leadership of Mao Zedong, Hua Guofeng and Zhao Ziyang who ruled the country during that period, invested heavily in the capacity development of its people.

“The outcome of this investment is evident today as China has moved from near the third world to the 2nd largest economy and one of the most industrialised countries on earth. In Germany, about two decades ago, there was mass unemployment with roughly five million unemployed people and low employment rates to the extent that it was labelled “the sick man in Europe.”

Today, nearly two-thirds of young Germans are enrolled in apprenticeships once they leave full-time education using the German Dual Vocational and educational training (DVT), nine out of ten young trainees get a permanent job at the end, with others being offered shorter-term contracts.

He said with this, Germany is now dubbed a job wonderland and European champion with regard to its high employment rates adding that ITF can replicate similar successes in Nigeria giving greater commitment to skills acquisition that is considered by many as the currency of the 21st Century.

To replicate these successes, Sir Ari said the problem of the perception that skills acquisition is the preserve of a section of society has to be overcome adding that prejudice has discouraged people from perceiving skills acquisition as a real and better alternative to white-collar jobs.

He said the time has come for every Nigerian to realise that Government alone cannot provide all the jobs that Nigerians desire adding that acquiring a skill is vital to tackling the socio-economic challenges facing the country.

The Director-General further disclosed that the Fund is re-engineering its skills intervention programmes through National Apprenticeship and Traineeship System (NATS)to further address the problems of rising unemployment and under-employment.

Sir, Ari said the Fund will register as a super certification centre; extend the 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 to achieve this.

He added that the intended outcome of the 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 youth under the NISDP and other intervention programmes) and increased SMEs and Entrepreneurs to meet the Nation’s economic needs.

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