The Innovation, Development and Effectiveness in the Acquisition of Skills, IDEAS, Project is training 144 Master Crafts Persons with knowledge upgrade and delivery system for them to in turn impact better on the artisan or the apprentices under them.
The IDEAS Project training, under the National Board for Technical Education, NBTE, is held for five days for Pedagogy, Digital Literacy, Health and Safety, Environment and Social Safeguard, and Soft Skills for young people in the state.
The Gombe State Commissioner of Education, Dr. Aishatu Umaru Maigari, told journalists after the opening ceremony in Gombe that the IDEAS Project was for the Master Craft Persons, who were masters in their own craft, but were being trained on how they too could in turn train over ten thousand others.
Dr. Maigari said the skills to be acquired would feed the Muhammadu “Buhari Industrial Park with the needed manpower. “There is no industrial park without human capital and one of the pillars of the Gombe State Development Agenda, DEVAGOM, is human capital development. This is part of His Excellency’s mandate to the people of Gombe State, training human capital so that when the industrialists come to the industrial park, they will bring their technical expertise and we have the technicians on the ground,” the Gombe State Commissioner of Education said.
Dr. Maigari said the skills to be acquired would also provide the needed skills and certification to function anywhere they go.
“This is one of them, because sometimes no matter the skills you have if you are not certified, you will not get employment. These are going to be certified by NBTE and so wherever they go it is going to be an international skilling. So, the certificate is going to be of international standard. So, they are going to get certified and employed wherever they are going to be,” said Dr. Maigari.
The Director of Human Resources at the National Board for Technical Education, Mr. Lawan Hafis, who represented the Executive Secretary of the board, Professor Idris Bugaje, said the training was essential because it would address unemployment since employers now pay much emphasis on skills and not certificates.
Mr. Hafis said with more skills, there would be less dependence on government employment or white-collar jobs.
“I think the reality is becoming clear to us. With your degree, diploma, and NCE, you can go and learn a trade. It doesn’t stop you from showing your certificate, you will not go hungry. You will always have something to take home. You will be on your own when a government job comes, you are okay, if it does not come, you have something to do,” said Mr. Hafis.
Mr. Mohammed Suleiman Yusuf, from the IDEAS Project Management Unit of the National Board of Technical Education, said Gombe was hosting the training because it was part of the six beneficiary states, with Benue, Kano, Abia, Edo and Ekiti as the other five states.
He said Gombe State was hosting the training because of the support received from the governor, the Commissioner of Education, as well as the proactive moves by the Gombe system and the project coordinating unit.
Mr. Yusuf said the emphasis was now placed on skills because of the enormous potential of skills to provide employment and economic power for individuals, describing it as a global currency.
“Skill is now the global currency. If you have a recognised skill or certified skill, you can travel anywhere in the world. Now employers are not looking for certification, they are looking for what you can do for them before they can pay you. If that is the case, then skills are the currency that can take you anywhere. Without skills, certified skills, you cannot go anywhere. And is part of the development agenda of the Federal government. It has it as component five in its development agenda and it will promote skills development in Nigeria.
Dominica Nwabufo
