ITF Discontinues Provision of Starter-packs for Skills Programme

James Emejo in Abuja

Director General, Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Dr. Afiz Oluwatoyin Ogun, said the fundhas abolished the practice of handing out starter-packs to graduands of its skills training programme.
Rather, the fund has chosen to expose the beneficiaries to certification by both local and international awarding bodies to certify them as fit for both the local and international markets.
In a statement, he said the move followed the completion of its latest round of assessment of privately owned training centers collaborating with it for the delivery of SUPA programme across the country.
Ogun noted that as ITF commences SUPA Phase II deployment and training process, it is seeking to increase the number of privately owned training centers from to 1500 from 880.
This, he said, was to enable it to achieve the target of graduating 100,000 artisans who would be drawn from the 29,000 that graduated from SUPA Foundation programme (Phase I) last year and from the pool of over 700,000 registered artisans on its SUPA platform.
According to him, as the population is scattered across every local government area in Nigeria, it is necessary to have at least two training centers per local government to guarantee ease of access by artisans.
The training center accreditation process is a comprehensive process that involves the examination of corporate structure of training centers, evaluation of their physical infrastructure and set-up, appraisal of their training equipment and assessment of competence/qualifications of their instructors.
Each training center is required to first register on the SUPA platform of the ITF.
Ogun explained that upon completion of the accreditation process, the fund will publish the list of successful training centers based on their categorisations in categories.
Thereafter, the fund will begin the process of notifying artisans of their deployment to the various accredited training centers based on proximity to their disclosed residential address.
He said that exercise will commence and end before April 30, 2025.
The DG further disclosed that the Fund will make significant investments in improving the capacities of accredited training centers to meet the target of SUPA which is international certification.
Over 3000 instructors from the 880 accredited training centers have undergone train-the-trainer courses, he said.
Ogun said, “The fund is developing a holistic system for equipment support for training centers and also seeking ways to ease access to finance.
“To achieve the goal of turning out two million trained artisans annually, the Fund will need to collaborate with 10,000 privately own and well-established training centers.
“This is a critical component of the skill-eco-system which the Fund is seeking to build in Nigeria to aid easy cultivation of manpower to meet industrial need and provide continuous development/life-long skill for graduates to match them with available opportunities in the industrial sector.”
He restated that the SUPA Phase II training entails training of artisans in soft skills of Project Management, Professional Ethics & Patriotism and Industrial Health and Safety.
He said for project management, ITF is collaborating with the Chartered Institute of Project Management of Nigeria, (CIPMN) to deliver a bespoke certification for artisans in a special category.
Both the examination and certification process of artisans in this phase will be handled by CIPMN.
SUPA Phase II is to take 8 weeks and successful artisans will automatically graduate to the final phase of SUPA which is Phase III.
The phase will cover the actual technical trainings which is based on 30 per cent theory and 70 per cent practical as well as training in Entrepreneurship.
Ogun noted that though SUPA was given to ITF as a mandate to address rampant quackery, unemployment and youth restiveness, the program completely aligns with ITF’s core mandate and also addresses a long-standing challenge of providing contributing employers to the Fund with skilled manpower to keep their businesses going.
He thanked President Bola Tinubu for his deep foresight on this critical issue besetting the economy.
He assured that in a short while, Nigerians will begin to feel the impact of all the good work being done behind the scenes by ITF in the form of better skilled workmen in relevant trade areas.