By Mashe Umaru Gwamna
In its determination to enhance engineering workforce skills in Nigeria, the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN),has inaugurated the Sector Skills Council for Engineering (SSC4E)
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Technical, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Education, Ms Abiola Arogundade,inaugurated the council at the 32nd COREN Engineering Assembly, Engineering Family Forum in Abuja.
Arogundade was represented by Prof Idris Bugaje, Executive Secretary, National Board for Technical Education(NBTE).
This means that SSC4E has joined 19 others in the Nigerian skills eco-system.
“The SSCs under the Nigerian Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF) are industry-led and are assigned the responsibility to identify the skill gaps in our industries .
“They are to develop occupational standards, ensure quality assurance and issue certification for those skills through the awarding body.
” The Chair of the Sector Skill Council for Engineering has been accepted graciously by the Nigerian Academy of Engineering (NAE) while COREN is the Awarding Body.
“The SSC shall promote the Nigerian Skills Qualification (NSQ), which has nine levels as approved by the National Council on Skills.”
He said the greatest challenge facing the SSC4E is repositioning the pyramid of the cadres of engineering.
She urged the SSC4E to also engage the informal sector and formalise the training.
She added that Nigeria’s economy is 75 per cent informal and thus cannot be ignored.
“Panteka in Kaduna, Ariaria shoe market in Aba, Computer Village in Ikeja, Kofar Ruwa Market in Kano, Apo Mechanic Village in Abuja, the road-side welders all over the country are typical examples.
“They are individually offering massive training to youths informally.
“By engaging them, we can standardise the training, offer them NSQ certification, train the Master Craftsmen as Quality Assurance Assessors, and eventually COREN could license those with NSQ to operate.
“These licensed artisans can be deployed into national infrastructural projects instead of importing labour from ECOWAS or Asia. ”
Prof. Sadiq Abubakar, President and Chairman of the Council,said the key roles and responsibilities of the SSC4E is provided for in the National Skills Qualification Framework approved by the Federal Executive Council.
He said these included : identifying skill development needs and cataloging skill ,addressing the skills gap and promoting the development of a highly skilled and competent workforce among others.
He said SSC4E is expected to develop occupational standards in the trade areas levels one to five covering the different engineering trades/services/consulting/repairs and maintenance, ventoring, fabrication.
