ITF to graduate 1000 Ogun youths on entrepreneurial skills, vocational training

August 30, 2013 | Filed under: Company News | Posted by: Editor

As part of the mandate and target of the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) to create wealth and generate employment opportunities through technical, industrial and entrepreneurship skills development, the training agency of the Federal Government (ITF) is set to graduate 1000 resident youths in Ogun state.

The soon-to-be-graduated 1000 Ogun state resident youths had undergone a three-month entrepreneurship and vocational skills acquisition training under the ITF-National Industrial Skills Development Programme (NISDP) in different trade areas, namely, catering and events decoration, welding and aluminium fabrication, computer maintenance and repairs as well as block moulding.

Speaking exclusively with the BusinessDay in Abeokuta at the weekend, Adeshola Taiwo, the Ogun State Area Manager, disclosed that the Ogun state resident trainees under the NISDP were part of ITF-NISDP vocational and entrepreneurship skills acquisition training scheme for 14 Nigerian states, including Ogun state, saying the scheme was primarily targeted at the reduction of poverty and wealth creation, especially at the grassroots.

Taiwo said that the ITF, through the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) spent N210 million on the training allowances in the 14 States, namely, Ogun, Ondo, Gombe, Enugu, Edo, Borno, Niger, Kaduna, Katsina, Kwara, Kogi, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom and Sokoto states for the three month period of the training, the agency however is more concerned with the competence and quality of trainees.

She explained that the agency, having observed high number of unemployed youths devised the National Industrial Skills Development Programme (NISDP) to bridge employment gap in the country, saying: “the NISDP is primarily a Technical and Vocational Skills Acquisition Programme, but designed to attract resource empowerment for its tainees upon graduation.

“The programme is designed to be executed through a combination of complementary strategies which comprise formal and informal skills acquisition processes. However, in the interim, the informal process is adopted as a “stop-gap” or immediate response strategy to jump start the mopping up of youth unemployment,” she said.

“The training lasts for 3 months in a combination of Trade Areas, including Block Moulding, Welding and Aluminium Fabrication, Computer Maintenance and Repairs, Catering and Event Decoration among other trades,” she concluded.

By; RAZAQ AYINLA