From Femi Oyelola, Kaduna
Nigeria’s aim of achieving its goal of being among the 20 most developed economies in the world by the year 2020, will be impossible except the country goes into mass production of craftsmen, technicians and technologists.
The Chairman, Governing Board of National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Professor Laz Ekweme disclosed this during the opening ceremony of a 3-Week Quality Assurance Assessor Training organised by the board in its move to institutionalize National Vocational Qualification Framework in Nigeria.
Prof. Ekweme added that for the Country to be among the 20 top economies of the world by 2020, it is absolutely necessary for training of craftsmen, technicians and technologists who are critical in economic activities, saying no amount of investment in power can yield positive result without the manpower.
Similarly, the Executive Secretary of NBTE and Convener of the 3-Week Training, Dr. Mas’ud Adamu Kazaure in his keynote address to the occasion said, the significance of the training was that, NBTE and its collaborating sister organizations were making decisive contributions to the transformation agenda, “since Nigeria’s aspiration to join the league of high performing economies of the world would remain a pipe dream without competent workforce”.
He said, availability of a critical mass of Assessors and Verifiers was Sin Qua Non for the operation of National Vocational Qualification Framework, which produces the skilled workmen.
Dr. Kazaure traced the struggle to institutionalize the framework back to 2010 during NBTE/British Council stakeholders’ workshop in Kaduna where it was unanimously agreed that, to enhance access and equity in education and employment, it would be imperative to institutionalize National Vocational Qualification Framework in Nigeria.
While noting that, the struggle had over the years recorded some level of progress, the NBTE Executive Secretary urged the stakeholders and participants of the training to collaborate effectively with the board in actualizing the major national initiative, adding that, “together we shall achieve our dreams of developing competent workforce for the various sectors of the economy”.
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