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The Industrial Training Fund (ITF) is converting five skills training centres (STC) to innovation and entrepreneurship to reduce unemployment.
The concerned centres are located in Lagos, Kano, Kogi, Abuja, and Plateau, even as it said vocational wings attached to its area offices would also be captured.
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The Director General of ITF, Sir Joseph Ari, who unveiled the plan at the third yearly global meeting of the forum for innovation in African universities, said with the conversion of the STCs to hubs for innovation and entrepreneurship, tertiary institutions can use these as incubation centres and vehicles for innovation and creativity.
According to him, the students’ industrial work experience scheme (SIWES), which emerged from research by the Fund indicating the gap between theories in schools of higher learning and practices in industries, is a prime example of such innovation.
“It will not be farfetched to assert that the quality of the Nigerian workforce could have been worse without practical exposure to industries before graduation. As an institution that places a premium on creativity and innovation, the ITF aligns its policy direction to prevailing global trends and government policy thrusts.
“One such policy and vision review is our current policy direction tagged: ‘Re-Engineering skills for sustainable development, which gave birth to the institutionalisation of the National Apprenticeship and Traineeship System (NATS).
Ari disclosed that the Fund had made a formal submission to the Federal Government for the establishment of Centres for Advanced Skills Training for Employment (CASTE) in the six geo-political zones, which can be used for graduate upskilling and reskilling, and overall capacity development of Nigerians in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET).
Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Mr. Andrew Adejoh, said the forum was the direct response to the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the African education sector.
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