FG moves to check workforce deficiency

Plans are underway by the Federal Government to collaborate with professional associations and private organisations to develop a National Skill Gap Analysis (NSGA), to check skill deficiency in the country’s workforce.

Permanent secretary of the Ministry of Education, Sunny Echono, disclosed this at the Construction Artisans Awards and Job Skill Expo in Abuja.

The Permanent secretary, who declared the event opened, said the NSGA will provide a strategic framework and help the government in planning how to ensure that there is no skill deficiency in any sector of the economy.He said government is worried about the high employment rate in the country, hence the strategy to draw attention to artisan skills for a more robust workforce.

“The NSGA will help us know how many people are needed in various profession and sector, what the deficits are and how we plan to fill that deficits,” he said.He expressed optimism that the collective effort of both the government and private sector would create a competitive environment that will stimulate the requirements and drive to make the strategy possible.

On his part, the Vice President of the Night Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Amaechi Asugwuni, called on the government and private organisations to encourage artisans by providing jobs for them.He said the NLC through its sectorial affiliation would continue to encourage artisans to be part of the formal system so that they are engaged and protected.

He noted that nations that believe in infrastructure do not allow the artisans to stay idle, adding that citizens should now focus on acquiring skills to compliment their formal educational qualifications.

The chairman Board of Trustees of the Construction Skill Training and empowerment project (C-STEmp), Rev. Ugo Chime, decried that vocational training and non-formal education have been very much undervalued in the education system.He noted that poverty in the country could only be addressed through vocational skills acquisition especially in the construction sector.

He added: “The fact that vocational skills earners suffer inferiority complex from their academic counterparts was enough reason for the establishment of  C-STEmp and introduction of skills competition which is desired to shift focus to vocational skills training of youth.”