The Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Jos Area Office, says it has trained 146 youths in various skills on the Plateau.
Mr Wilfred Mukan, the Area Manager, ITF Jos Area Office, said this on Friday in Jos during the graduation ceremony of the 146 who were trained for three months.
Mukan said that the training was done under the fund’s platform of the National Economic Recovery Growth Programme (NERGP) in Plateau State.
He said the NERGP programme, which is under the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) component, sought to provide Nigerians with skills and knowledge under the National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) framework, thereby making them employable.
The official said that the 146 were trained in six trade areas, namely plumbing and pipe fitting, carpentry, tiling, poultry farming, crop production and beauty care.
He explained that the trained 146 went through two months of practical and hands-on training, and one month of internship to practicalise what they learnt.
He said they were also taken through the Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP) to get the knowledge needed for starting up their own businesses.
He added that “they have been assessed and appropriate certification issued to them to enhance their participation in the economic space of the country.”
The area manager said that all the trainees would be given free Start-Up packs relevant to their field of training toward ensuring smooth take off of their business activities.
In his remarks, Dr Afiz Ogun, the Director-General of ITF, tasked the beneficiaries to ensure that they made the best use of the skills acquired.
Ogun, who was represented by Malam Ibrahim Yusuf, the fund’s acting Director for Technical, Vocational Skills Training Department, urged the trainees to cascade the skills learnt to others who would also be empowered via their skills.
He cautioned the trainees against selling the start-up packs given to them.
Mrs Victoria Gyang, one of the beneficiaries of the training, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
that she was trained in plumbing and pipe fitting, and commended the fund.
Gyang said she was a stay at home mother and unemployed, but the training had made her self reliant and in the near future an employer of labour.(NAN)
By Blessing Odega
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