President Bola Tinubu

By Mac DURUGBO

When the time comes to give account of its stewardship, one programme that may likely define the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR, is the Technical, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Education TVEE. And, perhaps, the foremost reason would be that the programme addressed one of the basic challenges of our country today – UNEMPLOYMENT – which is, undoubtedly, at the root of the nation’s multi-faceted challenges.

This anomaly is anchored principally in our education system. With 66 per cent theory and 34 per cent practical, many products of our universities and other training institutions are yearly thrown into the job market with no employable skills. Poor business environment and other economic challenges have also forced thousands of the nation’s skilled-labour force to seek “Greener Pastures” leaving the country with an abysmal 15 per cent highly skilled workforce. The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) that would, ordinarily, boost employments are struggling under high inflation, exchange rate and heavy taxes. 

Therefore, the present administration’s paradigm shift to technical and vocational education is highly commendable. And that President Tinubu motivated the shift should not come as a surprise. As Governor of Lagos State, he initiated and implemented TVET under the Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation. His immediate successor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola SAN, also promoted it exceedingly giving birth to the many skill acquisition centres in the State which are today graduating young people in many skills and engaging them in hand-on employment.

The President demonstrated his administration’s seriousness in this paradigm shift by immediately appointing a Senior Special Assistant on Technical, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Education (SSAP-TVEE), in the person of Madam Abiola Arogundade. That appointment has yielded the multiple TVET programmes being currently implemented across the country. Focusing on Job Creation and entrepreneurship education, the SSAP-TVEE has undertaken projects aimed at equipping Nigerians, particularly the youths, with skills to make them job-ready and provide tailored training programmes that align with industry needs. She has also embarked on entrepreneurship education to create strong and economically viable MSMEs that will create even more jobs for the youths.

Since her appointment, she has aggressively engaged various stakeholders in TVET, both local and foreign, resulting in the current systematic implementation of the agenda of her Office (OSSAP-TVEE) which includes partnering expert skills trainers and viable vocational institutions to train Nigerian youths and update their skills to globally competitive level. One of such partnerships was concluded early in the year with Messrs. Yikodeen Factory Limited, a leather shoe manufacturing factory in Lagos and it yielded a free one-month training for 100 Nigerian youths, 50 of whom were employed by the company after the training. It marked the first breakthrough into the new dawn for TVET in Nigeria. Since then, new partnerships have been struck while actual trainings have begun in earnest in some areas of the country towards achieving the Renewed Hope Agenda of the Tinubu administration.

And pursuant to the Presidential mandate on the nation’s skills training agencies, including the OSSAP-TVEE, to train no less than five million Nigerians annually, the Office has undertaken significant technical and vocational as well as entrepreneurship skills training for youths. Early this year, the Office challenged them to showcase their skills and entrepreneurial abilities in a Campaign it christened “UNLOCK”.  The campaign lasted six weeks ending with a two-week intensive online and physical training of about 10,000 youths nationwide on how to write a Business Plan. The competition attracted N500,000 grant each to a hundred participants adjudged to have written the best Business Plans. The 100 shortlisted participants got their grants on Saturday, July 8, at a grand Graduation/Awards ceremony in Abuja.

Soon after that ceremony, the OSSAP-TVEE launched another partnership with Messrs. De Lorenzo International Limited, a global leader in technical education. It involves the nationwide training of 500,000 youths on various technical skills including Robotic Engineering (RE) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). The programme kicked off Wednesday, July 17, 2024, with the donation of 50 laptops and 50 industrial course licenses valued at over N80 million to Robotics and Artificial Intelligence students of Government Science and Technical College, Garki in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The donation was for a six-month training programme on the two subjects. The gesture is to be extended to other technical and vocational institutions across the country.

There are other projects like the Solar Kiosk Project (SKP) meant for job creation and others either being implemented or work in progress. The partnership with embassies, for example, is meant to train artisans locally for foreign multinational companies investing in Nigeria. OSSAP-TVEE is also working locally with the Bank of Industry and the Private Sector on “Training for Industries” involving tailoring skills training towards industrial needs. The Office is also canvassing for inclusion of human capital development as critical component of bilateral agreements with other countries to give global recognition to Nigerians trained and certified locally by the National Bureau for Technical Education (NBTE).

There is also the inclusion of skills training in the one year National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) programme to deemphasize the search for white-collar jobs and emphasize on technical and vocational skills which will be certified along with the NYSC Certificate. And in accordance with the mandate of the President not to leave any Nigerian out of the programme, the OSSAP-TVEE is undertaking the nationwide training of inmates of correctional centres and collaborating with relevant agencies like the National Security Agency NSA and the Presidential Amnesty Programme PAP to design the curriculum of training to reform ex-terrorists and repentant militants. The Office is also working with the National Assembly, through the House Committee on Polytechnics and Higher Technical Education, to promulgate a law to incorporate skills training in the curriculum of SS students to enable them acquire at least one skill at graduation.

These are projects and programmes currently being perfected at different levels and will soon begin to take full effect. It is commendable that within so short a time, this administration is actually walking its talk.

DURUGBO, a seasoned Journalist, writes from Abuja.