By Okon Okon
The Compact with all Nigerians (SERVICOM), has advocated the upgrading and funding of National Directorate of Employment (NDE) training centres nationwide to produce professional trainees for job creators.
Mrs Nnenna Akajemeli made the call when she presented the SERVICOM Compliance Evaluation (SCE) report to the Director-General and the management of the NDE on Friday at the agency’s Headquarters in Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the SCE routine report is part of SERVICOM’s mandate to carry out independent surveys on quality of services of MDAs, to ensure citizens-focus service delivery among MDAs.
The exercise is to identify gaps in service delivery and making recommendations by the SERVICOM to improve customers’ satisfaction and accountability.
Akajemeli identified that only 15 NDE centres out of the 36 state offices were in good conditions, adding that most of the NDE state offices and acquisition centres were in poor state and disrepair.
She said that office furniture were broken and inadequate, in addition the surroundings were bushy in some of the centres visited by the SERVICOM team.
She said from their assessment, the timeframe given to the trainees to acquire certain skills was too short for the knowledge needed to master such trade.
The SERVICOM boss listed other weaknesses to include delays in issuing start-up capital and tools and equipment to enable the trainees to start their own micro business, payment for their services not promptly done among others.
She, however, advised the management of the NDE to liaise with appropriate authority for intervention and proper funding to improve the agency’s training centres in states in particular.
According to her, most of the states visited were complaining of poor funding, low budgetary allocation and late release of funds.
“Adequate modern equipment needed for trainings should be provided for all skill acquisition centres to improve the quality of training to trainees.
“Management of the NDE should ensure timely payment of trainers to encourage them to participate and put in their best in all training programmes, ” she advised.
In his response, Malam Abubakar Fikpo, the Director-General of NDE, commended the SERVICOM team for their analysis on the agency’s activities.
On the issue of short duration of training, Fikpo explained that the agency had numerous skills acquisition programmes classified as quick fix and long term programmes, adding that the period for any programme was dependent on its nature.
“Like the agricultural skills we impact, you don’t keep somebody and training for the whole six months, three months is adequate.
“And there are skills that meant for three months, some for six months, some for one year and even more, depending on the programme and the scheme.
Fikpo, who identified funding as major challenge among other challenges to the agency, assured the SERVICOM team and its management to work on the agency’s weaknesses identified by them in the course of their assessment for improvement. (NAN)
