The Governor of Gombe State, Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya says his administration intends to engage 3,000 graduates through the Human Capital Development Initiatives before the end of 2021.
He made this known during the Federal College of Education, Technical 6th to the 35th Convocation of over twenty thousand students in different areas of specialisation, in a combined convocation in 29 years.
While congratulating the efforts of the institution in bringing rapid growth and development to the College since its establishment in 1977, Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya, hoped the College would continue to make significant progress in teaching, research and innovation in the years to come.
He also said his government was equally committed to addressing the challenge of youth unemployment, by taking immediate and long-term actions aimed at stimulating economic growth and creating jobs for the youths.
“One of the first steps we took was to create an unemployment registration portal for our young graduates. So far we have registered 20,807 job seekers (7,463 university graduates and 13,344 NCE and National Diploma holders). Within the last few months, we have succeeded in engaging 500 of these unemployed youths through the ARC-P project,” said Governor Yahaya.
The Provost of the College, Dr Ali Adamu Boderi disclosed that all National Certificate of Education, NCE and undergraduate programmes offered by the college, had been fully accredited by both the National Commission for Colleges of Education and the National Universities Commission.
He said the institution was hoping to add more programmes in the two categories.
Dr Boderi said the College had since 2009 introduced degree programmes, which was affiliated to the Abubakar Tarawa Balewa University.
The Provost further said the college had designed a road map to improve on the existing facilities in the College, amidst other achievements in the college.
“We focus on the areas of quality staff, Workshops, Classrooms, Laboratory equipment, Standard Library, Lecture Halls, Road network, electricity, water supply to both students and staff and also improve human capacity through sponsorship of academic and non-teaching staff to acquire additional acquire an additional qualification in their various fields of specialization,” Dr Boderi said.
The Minister of Education, Mr Adamu Adamu, who was represented by the Executive Secretary, National Commission for Colleges of Education, Prof. Paulinus Chijioke Okwelle, encouraged the graduating students not to wait for “White Collar Jobs,’’ but use the technical skills, which they had acquired in the college to become self-reliant.
Mr Adamu also called on the graduating students to complement the government’s efforts by making positive contributions in their workplaces to become a shining light to the nation and worthy ambassadors of the college.
He said the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari had been enacting policies aimed at bringing robust reforms, geared towards repositioning the education sector and improving Nigeria’s Human Capital Index, one of which was the extension of the retirement age for teachers to 65 years, up from 60 years.
The Minister also announced that the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFUND, had set up a committee for the establishment of a centre of Excellence, one in each of the six Colleges of Education in the six Goe-Political Zones, with a mandate to among other things, regularly review and development the education curriculum.
“As a take-off, each of them had been given one billion naira and that will be sustained for the next five years by TETFUND.”
He said there were research grants were available by TETFUND in specific areas, thereby urging lecturers to be vigilant, research-minded and endeavour to partake in the provisions made by the government.
The Minister also urged the lecturers to understand the changing times and work towards providing solutions to various challenges in the education sector.
Addressing the graduates, the Chairman of the Governing Council of the college, Ambassador Sahibi Isa Gada, encouraged them to embrace Entrepreneurship as the solution to unemployment.
“As you step into the world of unemployment challenges, entrepreneurship is the answer. I, therefore, urge you to utilise the technical, vocational and entrepreneurship skills you acquired in order to be self-reliant and employers of labour,” said Ambassador Gada.
The Federal College of Education Technical, Gombe was given full operational autonomy in 1990, with the sole aim of producing highly competent technical and vocational teachers with sound moral and academic acumen for optimal and better performance in primary and secondary schools in Nigeria.
It commenced academic activities in 1990 and is today having over 12 thousand students.
PIAK
