23,991 N-Skills Beneficiaries to Commence Training on New Trades
Segun Awofadeji in Bauchi
About 23,991 N-Skills beneficiaries are to commence training on additional 11 trades, including auto-mechanic, leatherworks and Shoe-making, smart devices, and welding and fabrication, courtesy of the federal government intervention.
Others are aluminum assembly and fabrication, plumbing and piping, electrical installations, agency banking, tailoring and embroidery, baking and cosmetology, fish farming and jewelry-making and wire works.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Intervention, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Faruk, who stated this at the closing ceremony of the training of Master Craft Persons (MCPs) and flagging-off of the N-Skills (Pilot 2) programme held yesterday at the Professor Iya Abubakar Computer Centre, Bauchi, said in order to complete the training of the beneficiaries, the ministry has selected 1,830 MCPs from the 36 States and FCT for the six-months apprenticeship who were carefully selected using NBTE-guided criteria.
She said: “Today, we are concluding the orientation/preparatory training of MCPs selected from the North-east geopolitical zone and flagging off the commencement of the second pilot of the N-Skills programme.
“The orientation/capacity-building training equipped the MCPs with basic knowledge and appreciation of their roles and functions to enable them to participate meaningfully in the National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) training system as well as the use of training curricular based on the National Occupational Standards (NOS) in apprenticeship training.
“As we wind up the training, the ministry is working with relevant stakeholders, including the NBTE and relevant Awarding Bodies, on formation of MCP clusters and to provide hand-holding support for strengthening MCP cluster structures and internal governance.”
According to the minister, the ministry is also paying a modest stipend to the MCPs to enhance the delivery of the training saying: “We expect you, Master Craft Persons, to effectively play your role of providing work-based training for the next six months to boost their productivity and incomes and to explore the opportunity of becoming NBTE-accredited skills trainers.”
She added that the N-Skills programme provides unique solutions to the two perennial challenges of youth unemployment and low productivity in the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) sector.
“It gives us the opportunity to onboard large numbers of unemployed and marginalised youths in the country and brings them into productive employment and formal education system, in the shortest possible time.
“This will potentially translate into broad-based, inclusive national economic prosperity, which is in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s social inclusion agenda. This administration has created an opportunity for you, either as N-Skills MCP or trainee, to change your socioeconomic status and contribute meaningfully to national development. I urge you to therefore, actively participate to learn and to enhance your productivity,” she added.
