January 30 (THEWILL) – National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) through Major Academy Limited has trained 85 Quality Assurance Assessors in the North Central geopolitical zone of the country.
Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue, who spoke in Makurdi, on Monday, said that the training was necessary because the future of the world and Nigeria, in particular, lies in technical knowledge since white-collar jobs were not easy to come by.
The Governor, who spoke through the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Mr Agbo Ochekpe, noted that what NBTE had done was a sure way of taking many unemployed people off the streets.
“With this, we are surely going to get somewhere. This will turn around the fortunes of this country. This will scale up the number of certified skilled personnel that we have in the country,” he said.
While applauding NBTE and Major Academy Limited for putting up the training, the Governor expressed hope that the participants would leave the training venue at the end of the two weeks as ambassadors of NBTE.
He disclosed that he was doing things that would enhance technical knowledge in the state, adding that the government carried out high recruitment of technical teachers in the state among several other good things.
In his remarks, the Executive Secretary of NBTE, Prof. Idris Bugaje, lamented that skilled labourers in Nigeria were not recognised outside the country because they were not certified.
Represented by his Special Assistant, Malam Bashir Bello, Bugaje said that the workshop was a process that would aid skilled labourers to be certified so that they could get jobs elsewhere.
According to him, the essence of the trading was very important as it is not like other training, since it required absolute concentration of the participants.
The Deputy Program, Ideas Project, Engr Sulaiman Yusuf, who was represented by the Deputy Director, National Skills Quality Framework, Mr Olubode Majaigbe, said that the participants were the first set of people that would benefit from the implementation of the programme.
Yusuf implored them to be committed and take the training seriously so that in the end, it would impact their lives greatly.
Meanwhile, the Project Manager, Ideas Project, Engr Abbati Muhammad, said that it was the earnest desire of the organisation to build the capacity of technical teachers in all the technical colleges across the country.
Represented by Malam Mohammed Haruna, Muhammad stressed that they want the teachers to boost the knowledge of students from what they gathered from the training.
The North Central Project Coordinator, Ideas Project, Mr Samuel Kwande, said that the training was to assist in addressing the skills gaps in both the formal and informal sectors because the government cannot do everything.
“All Technical Colleges in Nigeria will soon become National Skills Qualification Centres. There is a lot to learn during the training in order to put the knowledge in its proper perspective, so as to breach the gap in skills acquisition,” he stated.
The Lead Consultant, Dr Bashir Ishaku, said that all the participants must participate fully in the training before they would be given certificates of attendance.
Ishaku added that before they could be certified, they must do a three-month fieldwork before they would be issued certificates that would qualify them as Assessors.
