The Nigerian Minister of Industry, Trade an Investment, Mr Adeniyi Adebayo says successful apprenticeships and traineeship have the potential to generate and build new skills to fill employment opportunities and tackle the challenges of poverty.
Mr Adebayo who was represented by the Minister of State, Industry Trade and Investment said this during the National Skills Summit organised by the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) in Abuja.
He however, lamented the deficit of skills acquisition in the country.
According to him, “Nigerians with the requisite skills are shockingly lacking even as unemployment and poverty persist.”
“Therefore, dialogues such as we are having today are key to unraveling what the challenges are”.
“Apprenticeship and Traineeship, which is one aspect of skills acquisition will play a key role given the numerous advantages it offers and its efficacy in solving some of the challenges we are facing in climes it has been fully explored,” he added.
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The Director-General of the Industrial Training Fund ITF, Mr Joseph Ari during the summit stated the need to consider additional educational options that will serve to boost the country’s national apprenticeship scheme.
“A Skills Gap Assessment of Six Priority Sectors of the National Economy conducted by the ITF in collaboration with the United Nations Development Organisation (UNIDO) revealed that rather than the absence of jobs, vacancies still exist in several sectors of the national economy that either could not be filled by Nigerians because of the lack of requisite skills or were being filled by foreigners.”
“This Summit is not an admission of a lack of effort but part of the process of galvanising and deepening apprenticeship in Nigeria for National Development and a search for practical solutions to some of the impediments,” he added.
Hauwa Abu
