ITF’s ambitious strategy to plug skills gap in industries

The Industrial Training Fund (ITF) has, since its establishment, become a formidable force in training Nigerians with requisite skills needed in industries.

ITF was established by an act of parliament to enhance the skills of young entrepreneurs and lessen the impact of foreign expatriates in key sectors of the economy.

Like many developing countries, Nigeria is plagued with an educational system that is not yet tailored to the needs of her industries. The consequence of this is that many technical skills needed for the country’s industrialisation are either imported or gropingly sought in the local labour market.

This has endangered the National Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP), which is an ambitious roadmap for the country’s industrialisation.

But since the coming on board of Juliet Chukkas-Onaeko, director-general, one year ago, efforts have been made to plug huge skills gap in local industries. Already, companies such as Nigerian Breweries (NB) plc, Kamjay Farms, Lafarge Africa and Truckmasters Nigeria Limited, among others, have partnered with the institution to train personnel on specific skills relevant to their industries.

NB and Lafarge Africa have collaborated with the institution to train personnel in machining, wielding and fabrication, while Kamjay Farms has partnered with it to train personnel in agriculture and allied business.

Also, Truckmasters Nigeria Limited has done same to train technicians in the area of truck automotive skills, just as Peugeot Automobile partnered to train youths in automotive trade areas.

AG Leventis Foundation is in partnership with the organisation to train individuals in agro- allied business, Chukkas-Onaeko disclosed, during an interactive session with journalists last November.

“Over 60 percent of our trainees got job offers as soon as we graduated them,” she had said.

ITF has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Cement Technology Institute of Nigeria(CTIN), with the business mogul, Aliko Dangote, signing on behalf of CTIN, with a target of training of 4000 artisans in the construction industry.

To ensure spread, ITF now has 27 area offices and skills centres spread across the country, with specific focus on equipping personnel with the needed skills to confront 21st century demands.

At an event to commemorate a year anniversary of the agency, the director-general said she first conducted an audit of its skills acquisition centres across the country as part of measures to ensure that the right tools in place for the artisans to leverage on to grow their knowledge.

Remarkably, over 37 000 students across the 36 states and the FCT have been successfully trained by the ITF in the last twelve months.

Two sets of trainees in the National Industrial Skills Development Programme have been successfully graduated, with over 80 percent of them gainfully employed. Also, there has been an expansion of ITF/DVT(German Chamber of Crafts and Commerce) to train apprentices in line with German Dual system for global skills.

Other areas of collaboration in the past one year include: ITF/SHELL collaboration on training, ITF/ONNE oil free zone collaboration, ITF/OGZA(Oil Free Trade Zone), among many others.

Olusegun Aganga, immediate past minister of industry, trade and investment, had praised the efforts of the ITF and noted their strategic role in advancing the country’s industrialisation steps.

“The Industrial Training Fund has a role to play regarding our advanced efforts in industrialisation of the economy. They are already advancing such efforts as regards their programmes which is already positioning our young entrepreneurs for global competitiveness,” Aganga said.

Frank S.U. Jacobs, president, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) said, “Our collaboration with ITF is on the key area of advancing the skills of the young entrepreneurs so that they could match what they have studied in school with the requisite skills. So far, the relationship has yielded positive results.”

Michael Zenner, German Ambassador to Nigeria, had in a separate forum, said efforts by the Federal Government in advancing skills for the younger generation in the country remains a key component in advancing industrialisation steps of the country.

Zenner said Europe had to leverage on skills to gain its industrialisation status and boost technical know-how.

Analyst believe that Nigeria’s industrialisation could be fast-tracked with agencies or parastatals like ITF.

Harrison Edeh