The acting director-general of Nigeria’s Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Mr Dickson Onuoha, has disclosed that a mass training program that would provide training for 36,000 youths being 1,000 from each state of the federation.
According to him, the mass training of Nigerian youths was in fulfillment of the mandate of ITF to provide training for skills in management for technical and entrepreneurial development in the public and private sectors of the economy.
“Though ITF has so far trained 14 million Nigerians since inception in 1971, the industry never rests on its oars as it continued to introduce new initiatives to enhance manpower development. There is a renewed effort to use the mass training program in poverty eradication, job creation and effective diversification of the economy as envisioned by the federal government,” said Onuoha
Onuoha, said that arrangements have reached an advanced stage for the take-off of the fifth phase of the National Industrial Skills Development Program (NISDP) in 18 states of the federation to facilitate the mass training program.
“We are reviewing the ITF/DVT, that is, German Chamber of Crafts and Commerce Dual, to train apprentices in line with the German Dual System, equipping and retooling of existing skills training centres and procurement of Mobile Training Units,’’ he added.
He said the mobile training units were for persons who could not access training at the formal skills centres, especially internally displaced persons to ensure their re-integration into society.
The chairman of the House Committee on Industry, Alhaji Abubakar Hussaini Moriki, assured the management of ITF that the federal government was working hard to make ITF more relevant to the economy and the House of Representative was always ready to provide the necessary legal framework to support the efforts of the federal government.
