Joseph Golwa
Handbook of Skill Acquisition Training and Empowerment Programmes, Benjamin Onoriode Irikefe, International Centre for Sustainable Development, Nigeria, 2018, pp. 1074
The second edition of the Handbook of Skill Acquisition Training and Empowerment Programmes was published barely a year after the publication of the 826-page first edition on 13th April, 2017. This edition was mooted due to the clamour and general interest shown by well-meaning stakeholders as to the plight of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and Refugees that have come to be associated with the insurgency in the North East geopolitical zone of Nigeria.
This necessitated the inclusion of a new chapter (Chapter 11), entitled “Skill Acquisition Training and Empowerment, Resettlement of IDPs, Refugees, Indigenes and Residents of Insurgency Devastated Territories and Reconstruction and Rehabilitation of their Communities.”
Another key feature of the second edition is the inclusion of a Reader’s Guide; Key Points to Note and; Revision Questions at the end of each chapter. It also covered the Spiritual Dimensions of Skill Acquisition.
Handbook of Skill Acquisition Training and Empowerment Programmes chronicles the author’s well over 26 years’ involvement in the training and management of Non-Militant, Restive and Ex-Militant Youths and Persons. The book elucidates the key elements of Skill Acquisition Training and Empowerment Programmes.
It states that a holistic Skill Acquisition Training and Empowerment Programme should comprise of four components: Vocation Specific Training; Soft and Life Skill Training; Entrepreneurship Development Training and Post-Training Empowerment.
In addition, as much as natural traits or endowments can aid the skills acquired through training, some aspects of learning and skill acquisition are dependent on Psychological, Psychomotor and Spiritual strength of Trainees.
Furthermore, proper exposition of Intellectual Capital that comprise Human Capital, Structural Capital and Relational Capital are needed in skill acquisition programmes.
It enunciates that starter packs for graduands of Skill Acquisition Programmes should be given to them before they leave the Training and should comprise of support and vocation specific components. They should also be trained on the use and application of each component of the Starter Pack
It preaches that Vocational and Technical Education should be taught alongside and within conventional academic curricula so that Graduates can be equipped with Vocation Specific Trades they can eke out a living, after graduation.
All Departments in academic institutions should develop Vocation Specific Trades or MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) out of the various Academic Curricula the students can get engaged in, after graduation.
It states that graduates Enskillment Programmes should be undertaken to help graduates of tertiary institutions unlock their creative and vocational potentials so that they can be involved in Vocation Specific Trades or MSMEs that can help them eke out a living.
The book specifies that Operationalisation and Reporting Templates are needed for effective and successful Training Programmes (over 100 Templates are provided in the book).
It also advances that Critical Success Entities must consolidate their interventions from Skill Acquisition up to Post-Training Empowerment through institutional collaborations to lift MSMEs and Artisanal Training Outfits and Artisans.
In the same vein, trainers should be proactive, accommodating and passionate when managing trainees and also avoid the commoditisation of training programmes.
The author sells the idea that continuous provisions should be made to re-integrate and empower ex-militants, Civilian JTF (Joint Task Force) members, de-radicalised, Boko Haram terrorists, IDPs and Nigerian refugees to enable them lead self-reliant, productive and wholesome livelihoods.
There is the need to properly institutionalise the resettlement, rehabilitation and reconstruction of insurgency devastated territories and persons.
Yet the Sambisa Joint Development Territory (SJDT) should be developed using Public Private Partnership (PPP) Model to make the Sambisa Forest a security fort and economic powerhouse for Nigeria rather than leaving it to degenerate into a safe haven for terrorists and other criminal elements to ply their trades.
The agenda setting and revolutionary nature of the book has made both pundits and specialists alike, akin the author to the “Adam Smith of Nigeria.” On the whole, the Handbook of Skill Acquisition Training and Empowerment Programmes (2nd edition) has been adjudged by academics and subject matter specialists as a mentoring manual that can be used to foster peace, security and sustainable development in all climes.