NANFeatures/Vol.12/No.85/2018 (July 9)
Empowering Nigerians via trainings: The ITF example
A News Analysis by Martha Agas, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
Mr Joseph Ari, the Director-General of Industrial Training Fund (ITF), recently said that the fund had trained many Nigerians on various vocations as a method of empowering them.
In a forum it organised for public office holders in Jos, he said that the fund trained 30,000 youths across the country on welding and fabrication, tailoring and fashion designing as well as plumbing and pipe fitting through National Industrial Skills Development Programme (NISDP).
According to him, Women Skills Empowerment Programme (WOSEP), Training on Wheels, Construction Skills Empowerment Programme, (CONSEP) and Technical Skills Development Project (TSDP), are other empowerment programmes of the fund.
“The training on wheels programme also known as passion to profession trained more than 120 beneficiaries in tailoring and garment making, using our mobile training units.
“The programme was established to assist professionals whose jobs did not allow them to undertake a full-time vocational programmes; the scheme, which is still ongoing, facilitated the training of many lawyers and civil servants.
“CONSEP was initiated in 2017 with the aim of equipping Nigerians with skills for the construction sector, in which we have trained 1,900 Nigerians from 19 states of the Federation and the FCT,’’ he said.
He explained that the programmes gave priority to rural women and people living with disabilities, observing that they were the most vulnerable groups who were in dire need of skills for economic empowerment.
In that regard, he said that the fund had empowered more than 500 rural women from 13 states and the FCT, who were trained across 32 centres on management, cosmetology, poultry farming, bead making, baking and pastry, tailoring and fashion design, among others.
Worried by the mass deportation of Nigerians and their ill-treatment on illegal routes to foreign countries, Ari said that ITF, in partnership with the National Commission For Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons, had been conducting assessment and profiling of the returnees.
“This is to incorporate them in the various training programes of ITF to empower them with life and technical skills to begin life in the country.
“The returnees will be trained using the existing programmes of ITF conceived to equip youths and indigent persons in Nigeria with technical and entrepreneurial skills; this will increase their chances of employment.
“The partnership is to discourage mass migration of Nigerians to foreign countries for greener pasture.
“We are training Nigerians also to be employable because research have shown that there are vacancies in some organisations but applicants do not have the requisite skills to be engaged.
“This is why there is mass employment of expatriates from some neighbouring countries who have occupied beyond the one per cent quota earmarked for them to fill in these vacancies,’’ he said.
Ari said that ITF workers were being trained and retrained in best global practices to meet global demands in training others and advised them to strive toward meeting the mandate of promoting skills acquisition and entrepreneurship.
He noted that as part of its efforts to promote technical skills, ITF introduced the Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES), to provide students of engineering, technical and allied disciplines with practical experience of real work situations which, he said, was expanding to include humanities.
“The scheme cuts across its approved courses across universities, polytechnics, monotechnics and colleges of educations.
“The fund has spent N1.6 billion on SIWES in the last two years as students and supervisory allowances to 328 tertiary institutions,’’ he said.
Ari noted further that ITF organised its maiden edition of Anti-corruption and Service Delivery day in May to build a culture of effective service delivery to its clients.
He said that the nation was in dire need of attitudinal reorientation to accelerate its development, observing that it had been part of consolidated efforts of the Federal Government to fight corruption.
He said that various programmes of the ITF and its collaborations with local and international organisation were envisaged to make more entrepreneurs who would be employers of labour.
Some stakeholders at the forum observed that in Nigeria’s quest for diversifying the economy and reducing its dependence on oil, ITF empowerment training programmes would make significant impact in that regard.
They observed further that the ITF, established in 1971 as a parastatal in the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, had reviewed its programmes and conceived new ones to perform better in generating wealth for Nigerians.
According to them, ITF is stimulating human performance, improve productivity and address gaps in technical skills is discharging its duties through partnerships with local and international organisations for its vocational training programmes.
Ms Hirhyel Dibal, the best graduating trainee of Technical Skills Development Project culinary art training, commended ITF for the platform it provided to learn skills.
She said that that the two week- internship at hospitality outlets exposed trainees to experience and employment opportunities.(NANFeatures)
**If used, please credit the writer as well as News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)