FG keen on skills acquisition for job creation – Minister

By Miriam Humbe

The Federal Government has placed a lot of emphasis on skills acquisition as a vehicle for job creation and poverty reduction.
Minister of State, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, (FMITI), Ambassador Mariam Katagun revealed this on Thursday during the skills summit organized by the Industrial Training Institute, (ITF) in Abuja.
She said: “Indeed, skills are one of the enablers of the National Enterprise Development Programme (NEDEP). This, for me, is the path to go to as many countries around the world have taken similar approaches to reduce unemployment to single digit figures”.
It is with a view to addressing these that the ITF organized the skills summit with the theme: Skills for Employability and Job Creation, and Strategies for Developing Employability Skills in Nigeria and Industry Needs and Education Curricula, as sub themes.
The effect of this is that institutions train potential workers in skills that are not needed by the labour market.
ITF’s Director General, Sir Joseph Ari said: “Although there are several other knotty problems, these highlight the enormity of the hurdles confronting the entrenching of skills acquisition culture in Nigeria.
“At this juncture, it is important to remind us that at a stage in our history, Nigeria was politically and economically at par with the Asian Tigers namely; Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong.
“Skills acquisition experts are in agreement that whereas these nations poured investments into their education sector, especially in Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET), we emphasized and prioritized paper qualification”.