ITF Graduates Poised for Enhanced Global Certification Opportunities

The Industrial Training Fund, is set to expose graduands of its skills training programs to certification by both local and international awarding bodies to certify them as fit for both the local and international markets rather handing them Starter-packs.

The Director General of ITF, Dr. Afiz Oluwatoyin Ogun made this known in Abuja while briefing newsmen after the Fund completed its latest round of assessment of privately owned Training Centers collaborating with it for the delivery of Skill Up Artisans Programme, SUPA program across Nigeria.

As ITF commences SUPA Phase II deployment and training process, it is seeking to increase the number of privately owned training centers from 880 to 1500 to enable it  achieve the target of graduating 100,000 artisans in this phase.

Dr. Ogun noted that 100,000  artisans will be drawn from the 29,000 that graduated from SUPA Foundation program (Phase I) last year and from the pool of over 700,000 registered artisans on its SUPA platform.

According to him, “As this population is scattered across every local government area in Nigeria, it is necessary to have at least 2 training centers per local government to guarantee ease of access by artisans.”

“The training center accreditation process is a comprehensive process that involves the examination of corporate structure of Training Centers, evaluation of their physical infrastructure and set-up, appraisal of their training equipment and assessment of competence/qualifications of their instructors.

Each Training Center is required to firstly register on the SUPA platform of the ITF.”

The Director General explained that “Upon completion of this accreditation process, the Fund will publish the list of successful training centers based on their categorizations in categories “A”, “B” and “C”.

Thereafter, the Fund will begin the process of notifying artisans of their deployment to the various accredited training centers based on proximity to their disclosed residential address.”

“That exercise will commence and end before April 30, 2025.” He stated.

The DG further disclosed that the Fund is going to make significant investments in improving the capacities of accredited training centers to meet the target of SUPA which is international certification.

“Over 3000 instructors from the 880  accredited training centers have undergone train-the-trainer courses. ” He revealed.

“The Fund is developing a wholistic system for equipment support for training centers and also seeking ways to ease access to finance. “

Dr Afiz noted that to achieve the goal of turning out 2 million trained artisans annually, the Fund will need to collaborate with 10,000 privately own and well-established training centers.

He restated that the SUPA Phase II training entails training of artisans in soft skills of Project Management, Professional Ethics & Patriotism and Industrial Health & Safety.

“For Project Management, ITF is collaborating with the Chartered Institute of Project Management of Nigeria, (CIPMN) to deliver a bespoke certification for artisans in a special category.”

“Both the examination and certification process of artisans in this phase will be handled by CIPMN. SUPA Phase II is to take 8 weeks and successful artisans will automatically graduate to the final phase of SUPA which is Phase III.”

“This phase will cover the actual technical trainings which is based on 30% theory and 70% practical as well as training in Entrepreneurship.”

Dr. Afiz Ogun also said though SUPA was given to ITF as a mandate to address rampant quackery, unemployment and youth restiveness, the program completely aligns with ITF’s core mandate and also addresses a long-standing challenge of providing contributing employers to the Fund with skilled manpower to keep their businesses going.