THE Federal Government of Nigeria has set up plans to breach the skills gap in the country, and in a bid to achieve this, the federal government will be partnering with the private sector of the economy to formulate relevant policies and skill centres in the country.
This was disclosed by the Vice President of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, on Monday during a meeting with the National Council on Skills (NCS) at the State House in Abuja.
At the meeting, VP Osinbajo noted that it is important to provide the Organized Private Sector (OPS) with more roles and opportunities in order to close the gap in skills in Nigeria.
As a resolution and from the approval of the NCS, the following associations will represent the Organized Private Sector: Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), National Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), the Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises, amongst others.
At the meeting also, the discourse stressed on the needs to encourage the establishment of State Councils on Skills at the state level in order to complement the efforts made by the federal government to breach skills gap in Nigeria.
Attesting to the relevance of the private sector, VP Osinbajo noted that the private sector has a great role to play in restoring skills acquisition centres in the country, due to its ability to determine what the needs of industries are.
“This can be achieved by collaborating with private sector stakeholders to, among other things, get accurate data on the skills gap in the country and how to better address it.
“The establishment and running of the various skills centres should be private sector driven, it shouldn’t be left to the government alone to manage. The industry players know where the gaps exist,” Prof Osinbajo said.
The governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje spoke on the values learnt from the functionality of the Kano State Skills Acquisition Centre – a skill acquisition centre which works in partnership with the Dangote Foundation.
In his words: “The Skills Acquisition Centre is being managed in collaboration with the Dangote Foundation, as a good example of collaboration with the private sector. The objective was to ensure that it is run on a sustainable basis.”
The revised Nigerian Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF), which was presented to the council by Prof. Idris Bugaje, the Executive Secretary of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) was also given an approval to be adopted and utilized in a bid to improve the benchmark of skills certification in Nigeria.
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