By Imelda Osayande
The National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) said it trained 80 Master Craftsmen for National Skills Qualifications (NSQ) in Benin.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the craftsmen were drawn from Fabrication and Welding, Auto Mechanic and Furniture Making ventures.
The NBTE Executive Secretary, Prof. Idris Bugaje, at the workshop in Benin, on Wednesday, said the project was supported by the World Bank.
Bugaje, who was represented by NBTE Project Manager of IDEAS, Mr. Abbati Muhammad, said the training was to ensure that effective skill-based trainings and assessments were being undertaken.
According to him, the training is under the Innovation Development and Effectiveness in the Acquisition Skills Project ( IDEAS) Edo, for South-South zone.
He said it was for the purpose of producing a competent workforce.
Bugaje said that the programme would improve the capacity and the effectiveness of the apprenticeship informal system in the country.
According to him, the craftsmen are stakeholders because they already have apprentices under them and already training.
He said as such, the sensitisation would raise awareness on how to structure the system of training happening in the informal sector.
” We are always shouting: ‘No employment’, but we have jobs, nobody to do it effectively.
“The Skill is there but nobody has set standard into what they are doing.
” The process of this training for them is to be recognised globally.
“We can even export some of them, that is where we are going. When you go abroad nobody asked how many qualifications have you but what can you do?,” he said.
The representative of World Bank, Mr Nuruddeen Sambo-Umar, said World Bank was investing in the sensitisation because of the importance of skill acquisition.
He said this was especially because there were more than 43 per cent of about 14 years old young people that needed to be trained with required skills, to help them and others coming after them.
Mr Musa Abdul, the National Apprenticeship Consultant Sensitisation Workshop, said the idea was to inform the apprentice of Ideas Programme.
Mr Austin Ighodaro, the project coordinator in Edo, told the participants that the programme would give them an insight on how the programme worked out well with evidence.
One of the participants, Mr Edosa Igbenoba, a Motor Mechanic, said in recent times, they didn’t have apprentices, adding many in the new generation were not ready to learn.
He expressed the confidence that with the sensitisation programme, he now knew how to convince them to learn a trade.
Another participant, Mr Lucky Equasebodeb, the state chairman of National Home makers Association, said from the sensitisation, he learnt to enlighten the younger ones on important of learning a trade. (NAN)
