ITF unveils plans to train 18,000 Nigerians

The Industrial Training Fund (ITF)

The Industrial Training Fund (ITF) on Thursday in Abuja unveiled its 2019 Skills Intervention Programmer targeting to train 18,000 Nigerians in skills acquisition and various trades.

Sir Joseph Ari, ITF Director-General, while briefing newsmen on Thursday in Abuja said its management came up with 11 implementable programmes for 2019 to address unemployment.

Ari listed the programmes as National Industrial Skills Development Programme (NISDP); Air-conditioning and Refrigeration (Training on Wheels); and Design and Garment Making (Training on Wheels) for Nigerian youths under the Passion to Professional Progrmme (P2PP).

He listed others as Skills Training and Empowerment Programme for the Physically Challeged (STEPP-C); Construction Skills Empowerment Programme (COSEP); Aqua-Culture (Fishing Farming); Manure Production, Crop Production (Green House Technology); Poultry Farming and Training Programme.

The director general also included Women Skills Empowerment Programme (WOSEP) and Department Development on International Marketing and Test Running.

Ari who disclosed that the training would begin in August and last between three to six months said that it was part of its effort and determination to address unemployment issues in the country.

He explained that apart from NISDP that would be implemented in all states of the federation, including FCT, the rest of the programmes would be implemented on rotational basis among the states.

“Preliminary activities for the implementation of the programmes including procurement of crested T-Shirts and Fez-Caps, screening of participants and selection of traning centres have commenced.

“The Agro-allied trades will commence immediately after test run of facilities while the Enterpreneurship Development Programme (EDP) component of the programme is between September 2019 and February 2020,’’ he said.

He added that the EDP would be done in collaboration with the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN)

Speaking on incentives to boost the trainees, he said that the giving of Starter Packs was part of ITF’s initiative.

He said ITF discovered that training Nigerians and just leaving them like that would not yield much dividends.

“”So we brought in the initiative of giving them Start up Parks, tools to work with.

“We discovered from our monitoring and evaluation process that it has yielded some dividends.

“”We brought in SMEDAN to allow the trainees to form cooperatives to boost their entrepreneurial skills and productivity, then access soft loans from the Bank of Industry (BOI).

“We are discussing with government to fine tune that aspect of capital to the trainees to set up their businesses.

“White collar jobs are not available and very difficult to come by,’’ he said.

In line with the Federal Government policy of Ease of Doing business, he said it had a robust collaboration with the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to ensure that the products of its trainees were up to standard and met certification requirement. (NAN)