Experts advocate restructuring of TVET for greater relevance in labour market
Markets
By Kudirat Musa / Philomina Attah
Abuja, April, 11, 2019 (NAN) Some experts under the aegis of Skills Development for Youth Employment in Nigeria (SKYE) have advocated restructuring of Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) to respond to the labour market’s dynamics.
One of the experts, Mr Bayode Babajide residing in Ogun said this at a sensitisation workshop organised for stakeholders, in Abuja.
Babajide said that TVET’s relevance had been limited in the labour market and graduates of the vocational training had few employment and income prospects, stressing the need for the Federal Government to refocus programme in line with the current economic realities.
He said that SKYE had a special approach toward supporting need-based technical and vocational education training and youth employment in the country.
“SKYE aims to improve the income generating employment opportunities for Nigerian youth and young adults of which shortage is a major cause of migration to European and other industrialised countries.
“Based on the integrated employment approach, make the Nigerian youths and young adults in the construction and agricultural sectors to be employable.
“It will also seek to increase the provision of information and advice on opportunities to enter the job market.
“The activities of the project are closely interlinked with those of the Sustainable Economic Development programmes within GIZ,’’ he said.
He said that consultants from the six states had collectively been working to identify both the public and privately-owned vocational institutions to achieve the SKYE set goals and give TVET new outlook in Nigeria.
“We came up with the questionnaire which looks at their facilities and we discovered that some of these institutions did not have up-to-date equipment to really groom the trainees.
“They did not have workshops and these are affecting the trainees from getting jobs in labour market.
“We also discovered that the curriculum used has not been reviewed for years, they were no inputs from the industries to actually give them the needs of the sector and the market to make the institutions’ graduates fit into the labour market.
“The building is another challenge; for instance, you will see class of 500 students with a single instructor.
Ms Byenya Chirtau, the Consultant for SKYE project from Plateau, said that SKYE had been doing very well to add value to TVET in Nigeria to change the orientation of Nigerian youth.
“During our research, we looked out for institutions that offer training in Agriculture, Construction and Entrepreneurship but Plateau state has only one Government Science and Technical College.
“Others were government agencies that offer training or support in these areas and they were quite a number of institutions that offer entrepreneurial training.
“The general composition of trainees in the various sectors is that construction generally had fewer females; for instance, Government Science and Technical College, has only 15 females out of 600 students of the school.
“Females were found more in entrepreneur such as fashion designers, catering and very few of females are interested in agriculture,’’ she said.
Ms Judith Nyior, the Consultant for SKYE project in Lagos, said that the project covered the areas of vocational education, agriculture and entrepreneurship.
She said that the research outcome showed that some stakeholders had done a lot of work in agriculture, construction and entrepreneurship.
“In the state, the programme covered the Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, the Ministry of Agriculture, Lagos Energy Academy, Lagos State Poultry Farm Estate.
“In the private sector, there are some sections doing well in these three focal areas. The programme opened our eyes to a lot of things that are happening.
“Aside the success recorded by the programme, we are facing challenges of trust because most of the organisations were skeptical of our credibility and some ascribed politics to it.
“My recommendation to solve the challenge is that we need to collaborate with both government and private organisations in these areas and that way, we can reach the large number of people and establish credibility within the state.
NAN reports that Skills Development for Youth Employment in Nigeria (SKYE) is commissioned by the German Government with focus on agriculture, construction and entrepreneurship which started in July, 2018 and will end in April 2022.
Edo, Enugu, Kano, Lagos, Ogun, Plateau states are participating, with the financial support of 19.2 million Euros. (NAN)
ROK/APA/OSA/GY
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Edited by Shittu Obassa/Grace Yussuf