Yakubu Busari
The Director General Industrial Training Fund ,Sir Joseph Ntung Ari has said ,the ITF under two years had exceeded expectation of meeting the technological revolution of training over 450,000 Nigerians to earn sustainable livelihoods as paid employees on entrepreneurship target of population growth .
Sir Ari made this disclosure while briefing Journalists at NUJ, Plateau state council on federal government mandate to create more jobs ,reduce poverty and enhance National grow through economy and skills acquisition .
He said ,”I am thrilled and excited whenever an opportunity presents interact with my friends and colleagues of the pen profession which I consider my primary constituency in view of the many decades I had invested at the various levels of the Journalism profession”.
Ari disclosed that ,he appreciated the invaluable and indeed critical role played by ITF in facilitating and driving the achievements of government toward actualizing main objective as the programmes equipped Nigerians across the country .
The Director stated that such sensitisation and enlightenment with regards to skills acquisition is especially important in view of subsisting prejudices and perception on handon trades as endeavors and preserve for the down trodden and never do wells .
According to him, today an increasing number of Nigerians across the social spectrum are desirous of acquiring skills is a huge credit ,ITF was established on the 8th of October, 1971 ,by decree No 47 as amended in 2011 with the mandate to among others provide ,promote and encourage the acquisition of skills in industry and commence with a view to generating a pool of indigenous trained manpower sufficient to meet the need of the private and public sectors of the economy.
He reiterated that the available skills training include, trades and vocations such as Welding and Fabrication, alonng and Fashion Designing and Plumbing and Pipefitting. Event Management, Cosmetology, Poultry Farming, Bead Making, Baking and pastry, Soap/Disinfectant/Detergent Making, Hair Making, Food Processing, Tailoring and Fashion Design. Others included Tie and Dye, Electrical Installation, Plaster of Paris, Brick Making and Carpentary.
It is also worthy of note that, unlike in the past where the ITF depended on State Governments and other collaborating bodies to empower trainees with start-up kits, all the beneficiaries of the ITF skills programmes were provided with start-up kits by the Fund,he explained.
Joseph Ari told journalists that the decision to provide start-up packs was based on results of our monitoring and evaluation/tracer studies of earlier phases, which revealed that in all cases where the trainees were provided with the kits, over 90 percent earned reasonable livelihoods as entrepreneurs. ‘
Despite our efforts and those of the Federal Government, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Report of the 3rd quarter of 2018 revealed that just as the number of the economically active or working age (15-64 years) grew from 110.3 million to 111.1 million, the number of the unemployed equally appreciated from 11.92 million in the first quarter to 13.55 and 15.99 in the second and third quarters.
He maintained that 3 Skills Gap Assessment in Six Priority Sectors of the Nigerian Economy, which was conducted by’ the ITF in conjunction with the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) that was presented to stakeholders in Abuja in April, 2018, showed that although vacancies existed in all sectors surveyed, they were‘being filled by persons other than Nigerians, because of the lack of requisite skills.
Ntung Ari gave and thorough ideas that other existing programmes like the NISDP, STEPP-C, WOSEP, CON EP, WI [,3 expanded and occasionally may run several streams so that more Nigerians will acquire skills for employability and entrepreneurship .
He added with growing population of unemployed citizens ITF has trained over 300,000 people in 2018 which appear like a drop of water in the ocean. It is in this regard that I seize this opportunity to call on State Governments and other stakeholders to sponsor additional trainees for our skills acquisition monthly stipends to trainees, payment of master craftsmen allowance and provision.
Ari stressed that tackling unemployment through skills acquisition cannot and should not be viewed as the sole responsibility of the ITF and other agencies of the Federal Government alone.
He employed cooperation and the collaboration of all state Governments, the Organised Private Sector (OPS politicians and other stakeholders will be critical for a multipliers effects,
Specifically, the report indicated that despite spiraling unemployment, 925 trades were difficult and hard to fill in the country’s labour market.
The breakdown showed that 19.7% vacancies were in the housing sector, 13.9% in petrochemical sector, 14.7% in other goods, 11.4% in the auto industry, 10.3% in textiles, 10.1% in steel, 8.9% in the services sector and 3.3% in leather industry.
The report also noted that 15.7 % of all hard to fill vacancies were due to lack of technical skills, 11.8% clue to lack of basic IT skills, 9.2% due to lack of advanced IT skills and between 9.2% and 7.5% of the vacancies were due to the lack of requisite soft skills.
In order to stem the spiraling unemployment, drive President Muhammadu Buhari’s job creation efforts, and address the specific gaps revealed by the Skills Gap Survey, the ITF came up with a list of implementable National Industrial Skills Development Programme (NISDP) Women Skills Empowerment Programme (WOSEP) .
Despite this clearly challenging and no doubt tasking mandate, it vigorously pursued its realisation by training over 20 million Nigerians that are today manning key sectors of the National economy. From our skills intervention programmes, which are accessible to all Nigerians particularly the youth, to our tailor-made skills acquisition and other direct training services that are implemented by our 43 Industrial Skills Training Centres and Area Offices nationwide, we are continually and consistently driving Nigeria to be amongst the skills hub of the world. Ari said.
in line with the policy direction of President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, the Industrial Training Fund re- articulated and refocused its activities with greater emphasis on skills acquisition in order to create jobs to stem rampant unemployment and breed a new generation of entrepreneurs in order to transform the economic landscape of the country. ‘
To achieve this, the incumbent management in 2016 unveiled one of its most ambitious plans since establishment. Tagged the ITF Reviewed Vision: Strategies for Mandate Actualisation, the six-year plan was divided into quick wins, short, medium and long-term goals.
The implementation of the plan commenced in 2016 and will terminate in 2022. The overriding objectives of the plan was to accelerate the impartation of technical vocational skills to Nigerians, aggressively address service challenges, tackle infrastructural deficits, expand revenue generation and a gamut of other strictures hamstringing the actualisation of the Fund’s mandate.
ITF boss noted that unemployment has continued to rise. Against this backdrop, therefore, we have resolved to step up our skills acquisition efforts in 2019 so that more Nigerians will acquire skills for employability and entrepreneurship.
In this regard, we shall expand intakefor our existing programmes and introduce new ones. As an indication of our tempo this year, we have commenced the implementation of. an information and communication programme called the Information Technology Skills Empowerment Programme (ISEP). The programme is designed [to equip Nigerian youths with the needed Information and Communication Technology skills for job creation. The programme is currently on-going in seven states namely; Plateau, Bauchi, Kaduna, Ondo, Imo and,Cross River States.
Furthermore, in view of the fact that Agriculture is the major preoccupation of majority of Nigerians, the training ‘of Nigerians along the agricultural value chain will be given all the attention under the agripreneurship programme. In its pilot phase, 180 Nigerians drawn from five states namely Katsina, Cross River, Ogun, Plateau and Enugu States will be
trained in the following areas:
Post Harvest Techniques and Product Development
Aquaculture Manure Production
Crop Production (Green House Technology) International Business and Marketing Poultry Farming
To ensure that members of our workforce, who are saddled with the responsibility of this training have the required capacity to adequately carryout the training, 30 staff of the ITF were trained at the Galilee International‘ Management Institute of Israel in all skills along the Agricultural value chain.
” You will recall that in December 2018, the Fund graduated 30 youths in the Passion 2 Profession Programme (PZPP), in Shendam, where they were trained in garment making using the Fund to ensure achievement of the ‘plan, the ITF expanded existing skills acquisition programmes and introduced new initiatives.
The programmes include the National Industrial Skills Development Programme (NISDP), the Women Skills Empowerment Programme (WOSEP), Passion to Profession Programme (PZPP) or Training on Wheels, the Construction Skills Empowerment Programme (CONSEP),. the Skills Training and Empowerment Programme for Physically Challenged (STEPP-C),.
