NBC invests N2bn to bridge youth technical skill gap

In line with its unwavering commitment to producing high skilled manpower among youths in technical fields as well as boost employment prospect in the country, the Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC) has invested over N2 billion in training 563 youths under its flagship technical training certification programme.

The sponsorship training, which commenced in 1996, has bridged the unemployment gap and empowered trainees from the scheme with appropriate skills needed to be marketable in the ever-competitive labour market.

Ben Langat, managing director, NBC, while speaking at the 2014 graduation of the regular trainees of NBC Technical Training Centre, said the company understood that polytechnic and technical schools played a critical role in human capacity development.

He regretted that that the government sometimes ignored technical education thinking that universities would fill the space of polytechnics and technical schools in the supply of technically-skilled manpower. He stressed that no economy could grow without strong manpower, especially in technical areas.

“We tend to believe any aspiring person should go to university forgetting that there is a contribution of a level below university which is the technical schools and polytechnics,” said Langat. 

“The training we offer is about building capacity as a country to absorb people at that level of training and I think government can invest more on technical education with the help of a public private partnership,” he said. 

He further said the NBC provided a training drawn from the curriculum adopted from a broader Coca Cola system curriculum, which is channelled to meet world-class standard.

“The type of training we offer here is the same with the ones you get across the globe. So it is world-class and I believe that this is where we also come in to work with polytechnics and the technical colleges to ensure we tailor the training to suit our world-class curriculum,” he said.

Tope Dada, head, NBC Technical Training, said to achieve the set objective of the company, the technical training centre runs a dual training system that combines classroom and workshop practical training.

He added that the methodology ensured that at the end of the programme, trainees should undergo a cultural change both technically and ethically in order to meet a world-class standard that can respond fast and resolve different engineering problems in real-time operations. 

KELECHI EWUZIE