TF Laments Rising Unemployment, Skills Gap, Seeks to Institutionalise Apprenticeship as Panacea
James Emejo in Abuja
The Industrial Training Fund (ITF), has raised concerns over the inability of Nigerians to occupy existing job opportunities due to a lack of requisite skills, thereby yielding employment to foreigners.
The Director-General of ITF, Mr. Joseph Ari, said despite the high unemployment rate in the country, especially among the youths, a skills gap assessment in six priority sectors of the economy revealed that rather than the absence of jobs, vacancies still exist in several sectors of the national economy.
He said the study conducted by the fund in collaboration with the United Nations Development Organisation (UNIDO) further showed that Nigerians were unable to fill the vacancies either because of the lack of requisite skills or were being filled by foreigners.
Speaking at the opening of the 2nd National Skills Summit, which was hosted by the ITF, he advocated for the institutionalisation of apprenticeship and traineeship for national development as a panaceafor the soaring unemployment and poverty in the country.
This is as the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mrs. Maryam Katagum, described the summit as the necessary tonic needed as the federal government commences implementation of the National Development Plan 2022-2025, to afford leaders from the government, academia and the business community to develop a shared understanding of what is required to achieve excellence in the skills sector.
The minister, while declaring the gathering open, noted that over the years, the ITF had embarked on a passionate campaign for skills development under the leadership of Ari, adding that this aligned perfectly with the vision of the federal government with regard to economic diversification and job creation.
She said her ministry had been monitoring the progress of all agencies and parastatals under its purview and “I make bold to declare that the ITF is at the forefront of delivering the policies of the current administration”.
Katagum said through its numerous skills intervention programmes, the fund had trained thousands of Nigerians that are today gainfully employed.
Nonetheless, the ITF DG said one of the objectives of the summit was to seek ways of applying apprenticeship in resolving poverty and unemployment bearing in mind how well it worked miracles for countries that took that route when they contended with issues such as we are facing now.
He said, “The question that arises from this paradox is, how can we plug these gaps using apprenticeship? The answer to this question can be found in countries such as Germany, China, Australia, USA and others that at various times faced similar challenges such as we are contending.
“What they did was to pour greater investments in skills acquisition and apprenticeship training. For instance, in Germany about two decades ago, there was mass unemployment with roughly five million unemployed people and low employment rates to the extent that it was labeled “the sick man in Europe.”
