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By Gabriel Dike
The executive secretary, of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Prof. Idris Bugaje, has advised the nation’s polytechnics to focus on empowering Nigerian youths to acquire technical skills.
He spoke in Lagos at one-day workshop organized by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) for polytechnic rectors, and it attracted federal and state polytechnic rectors.
Bugaje, who spoke on “Improving skills development in Nigerian polytechnics for economic growth, entrepreneurship and social inclusion,” said the workshop sponsored by TETFund is a wakeup call to every polytechnic in the country to reposition itself.
He urged the polytechnics to improve the skills content of technical education for ND/HND, institute NSQF skills training under vocational areas of TVET, enhance entrepreneurship of students with certified skills content and social inclusion in its skills training.
According to him, skills have now become the new global currency of labour, stating up-klilling was a must if national economies are to stay on top of the curve and remain competitive. He declared that Nigerian youths were being shortchanged whenever skilled labour was imported from Asia or elsewhere to execute projects in Nigeria.
The NBTE boss explained that skills without entrepreneurship was like a second aircraft without a good pilot, noting, “marketing the skills and marketing what those skills produce is very vital and that is what entrepreneurship is all about.’’
Prof. Bugaje revealed that social inclusion requires polytechnics to consider their neighborhoods’ and get youths engaged in skill training. He also stressed the need for the institutions to work with formal skills sectors and give them a platform for improving their skills.
His words: “Taking skills training to a higher level, as an export commodity, NBTE shall soon introduce NYSE and only polytechnics offering NSQ training shall be participating. Minister of Education has already given us approval to commence the NYSE programme.
“With skills training, polytechnics will realize that clamouring for upgrade to a university is an unnecessary exercise and a disservice to the national economy, especially Lagos that is today the industrial hub of not only Nigeria but the entire ECOWAS. Skills training is a latent gold mine that we are yet to fully tap into.’’
In his remarks, the Executive Secretary of TETFund, Prof. Elias Bogoro assured the rectors of the fund continued support to promote and advance technical and vocational education in the country.
Bogoro noted that for Nigeria to be reckoned with among nations, anything that would help promote technical education must not be relegated to the background.
He said in spite of the difficult economic situation that has led to the reduction of the revenue of the agency, the fund would continued to discharge its duties and fulfil its mandate of helping tertiary institutions in the country to get better facilities and lecturers to train young Nigerians.
