ITF plans 3 automotive training centres

Industrial Training Fund (ITF) has announced plans to set up three automotive and parts training centres, with the aim of training two million youths in the country.

The centres, according to ITF, is expected to help drive the Federal Government’s policy on automobile industry. Meanwhile, it said 35,000 young Nigerian men and women have been trained across the various states of the federation under the National Industrial Skills Development Programme (NISDP).

They have been equipped with

skills in various trade areas including: Welding and Fabrication, Plaster of Paris (POP), Autotronics, Garments Making, Poultry, Information and Communication Technology ICT Cell Phone Repairs, Rice Milling, among others.

Director General/Chief Executive, ITF, Mrs. Juliet Chukkas-Onaeko, disclosed these at a media briefing in Lagos.  She said that ITF carried out tracking exercises after the training to ascertain the usefulness of the skills acquired by the trainees as well as inculcate in them the spirit of entrepreneurship and cooperative formation.

According to her, “the tracking exercise revealed that a number of cooperatives were formed while 1,647 trainees gained employment with both the public and private sectors of the economy. In addition 1,002 of the trainees became employers of labour.”

Chukkas-Onaeko stated that the Fund has entered into collaboration with state governments to key into this programme, especially in the area of provision of tools and equipment to trainees in their various states. She further said that the Fund, in conjunction with United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) is conducting a study titled, “National Skill Gap Assessment.”

According to her, the major aim of the study is to identify critical skill needs in the Nigeria.

Vanguard