The Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) has called on the government to give due attention to the formalisation of apprenticeship policy as a measure to address the nation’s current challenge of rising unemployment.
The employers’ body said with the rising rate of unemployment globally, and Nigeria in particular, apprenticeship has been identified as a veritable means of tackling the scourge.
The Director-General of NECA, Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde, at the just-concluded International Labour Conference (ILC), in Geneva, said the conversation on apprenticeship had gained prominence globally, stating that there was no better time for the government to address the nation’s current challenge of rising unemployment with a deliberate apprenticeship policy.
According to him, “It is no gainsaying that with over 35 per cent unemployment rate and a challenged economy like ours, the government must look beyond the usual to tackle the ticking time-bomb.
“It is pleasing to note that Nigeria is ahead of the world in the promotion of Apprenticeship and Technical and Vocational Skills Training through a Public-Private Partnership scheme with the Industrial Training Fund (ITF).
“The Projec with ITF remained a model project, equipping thousands of Nigerian youths with scalable skills and competencies that will make them relevant and useful in the Industry, thereby adding value to the economy.”
He expressed excitement that the ITF-NECA project has also been adjudged by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), as a model for addressing unemployment and skills mismatch in the country.
While also urging the government to quickly address the rising unemployment and its many socio-economic consequences in the country, he said the current established framework and Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model of the ITF-NECA already in place should be deepened for greater effect and impact.
He said deliberate efforts should be made to encourage more private sector operators to support apprenticeship with incentives that would motivate them to contribute effectively to the success and sustainability of the scheme.
The outcome of the discussions of the Committee on Apprenticeship at the ILO, Oyerinde said, also gave credence to the need to refocus on apprenticeship and skills development.
According to him, the setting of a new international labour standard in the form of a recommendation on apprenticeship no doubt gained wide acceptance by the constituents of the ILO.
