Nigeria’s Training Agency ITF, to train 15,000 artisans in 24 trade areas in northcentral Plateau

Nigeria

No fewer than 15,000 artisans are to undergo skill acquisition training in 24 trade areas under the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) Skill Up Acquisition (SUPA) programme in Nigeria’s northcentral Plateau state.

Director, Technical and Vocational Skills Training of ITF, Mrs. Nancy Ndidiamaka Ekong, who disclosed this during the screening exercise for the would be artisans at the ITF Area Office, Miango Jos on Wednesday, said that the training, which starts next year, have trade areas such as ICT,  cutting and sewing, masonry, plumbing and pipe fitting,  domestic electrical installation, including the hotel management activities, like housekeeping and lots more

According to her, the objective of the screening is to identify genuine applicants since they registered on-line to ensure that nobody registered by proxy.

According to her, “The objective of today’s exercise is that we want to screen the intended artisans and gather their data because people registered online and we do not know who they are. You do not know whether these things were done in proxy. 

So when you see the would be trainees, you will be able to interact with them because they will be posted to centers and we advise them to choose to centers that are closest to them for maximum learning activities to take place. 

“So we are trying to make sure that we get to see them, we interact with them, we get their details, and then we onboard them to training centers where they should have this program come next year. 

She said that unlike in previous programmes, the trainees would not be given kits because some of them ended up selling them.

The director also disclosed that the trainees will be given an allowance of N10,000 monthly to ease their transportation to the training centres.

She added, “And you can see the crowd here. If we had not done this now, we would not be able to know if the number of people that have been successfully screened can be onboarded to the number of centers that we already have on-ground. 

Mrs Ekong said that one of the problems of the Fund is lack of training centres because the centres are carefully selected to suit the trainee needs 

“If we have a shortage of centers, it means we have to go out there and scout for centers. And like I told them, it’s not just any high center, but we are looking for centers that have the tools, the equipment, and a conducive learning environment for them to learn the skills that they are supposed to learn. 

She said that similar exercises are going on in all Area Offices of the Fund nationwide.

On the importance of the SUPA programme, the director said, “We want to give them financial independence. We want to make sure that we can sleep with our eyes closed. Because if these people do not have financial independence, that is where you have crime.