Manufacturers initiate strategy to plug skills loopholes

Nigerian manufacturers now have a new strategy for dealing with skills loopholes and shortages at factories. Rather than import technically skilled  personnel from other countries, local manufacturers now partner with the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) and other technical institutions to train individuals on specific skills needed at their factories.

Juliet Chukkas-Onaeko, chief executive officer, ITF, said companies like  Nigerian Breweries (NB) plc, Kamjay Farms, Lafarge Africa and Truckmasters Nigeria Limited have recently  partnered with the institution to train personnel on specific skills that will be of utmost necessity to their firms.

NB and Lafarge Africa have collaborated with the institution to train  personnel in machining, wielding and fabrication, Chukkas-Onaeko said.

Similarly, Kamjay Farms, located at Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos, has equally collaborated with the institution to train personnel in agriculture and allied businesses, while Truckmasters Nigeria Limited has done same to train technicians in the area of truck automotive skills.

Moreover, Peugeot Automobile has partnered to train youths in automotive trade areas,  just as AG Leventis Foundation is  in partnership with the organisation to train individuals in agro- allied business.

“Over 60 percent of our trainees got job offers as soon as we graduated them,” she said during a two-day media workshop titled, ‘Building a Greater Nation through Sustained Transformation’ held in Abuja.

Just recently, NB partnered with ITF to train individuals on specific skills needed at its brewery plant. At the end of the programme, the largest brewer by market share employed all of the trainees, totalling about 200, she said.

Skills shortages are forcing local manufacturers to re-think strategy as they struggle to find suitable personnel to man several technical areas in their firms. Many firms now import skills from other developing and advanced economies to ensure continued operations.

Analysts believe that companies are becoming less interested in higher certificates, but are beginning to adopt the German-type dual educational model, which combines apprenticeships in a company and education at a vocational school in order to boost output per worker.

Employers of labour across Nigeria complain that performance of the majority of graduates in industry does not justify their certificates.

Aliko Dangote, president, Dangote Group,  recently said that a total of 8,000 technicians are needed in his local investments, of which he would be recruiting 300 each year.

“As a nation, one of our major challenges to industrial development is not really funding, markets, or raw materials, but rather absence of highly trained and experienced human resources to drive growth,” said Dangote, while commissioning an  academy he set up for this purpose.

Roy Nkwocha, teacher and writer, believes that more still needs to be done to increase the number of science- and technical-based students, insisting that industrial revolution can hardly take place in an atmosphere where the majority of students stay away from the two areas.

ODINAKA ANUDU

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