ITF to train 1.2million youths yearly

Posted by: Our Reporter on March 28, 2013 in Industry Leave a comment

Any employer that refuses to remit one per cent of its workers’ yearly salaries to the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), risks three-year jail term, Director-General Prof. Sambo Wapmuk, has said.

In a paper he delivered at the ITF –Port stakeholders forum in Lagos, he said the penalty was prescribed by the law establishing the ITF.

He charged firm’s to ensure remittance to enable his organisation to build at least four skills training centres yearly, provide direct employment and empower the youth with employable skills.

According to him, remittance will help in providing the necessary skills for industrialisation and development, as well as reduce unemployment, youth restiveness and insecurity.

ITF, Wapmuk said, is not resting on its oars to narrow the unemployment gap and boost industrialisation.

He said through its National Industrial Skills Development Programme, ITF seeks to train 1.2 million youths yearly in various trade areas, such as manufacturing, agro-allied business and construction.

He said the programme is a response to the dire skills shortages identified through studies by the ITF, in conjunction with the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA), in 2006,and also the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) last year.

“The thrust of the programme is, therefore, to shore up the skills gap in the economy by building the capacity of youths so that they can be employed by others or be self-employed’’.

He also said to escalate skills acquisition for the nation’s industrialisation, the ITF has among other things, identified training needs with NECA and UNIDO.

According to Wapmuk, the agency is also floating a skilled manpower development programme initiated under a collaborative association with the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA).

The project, he said, is tagged: “Technical Skills Development Project” (TSDP). He said the fund is also developing job specification documents and at the moment, training 110 staff of the Dangote Cement Group for one year.

According to him, the agency is also coordinating and sponsoring a National Industrial Skills Development Programme (NISDP), which has taken off in 10 states under its first phase.