Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), Prof. Mohammad Haruna, has said the agency is training youths in cutting edge technology to prepare them for the fourth industrial revolution.
He said the world is shifting to automation remote sensing, remote control and wireless operation.
The NASENI chief said professionals and artisans need regular update of skills to remain relevant, get employed, remain employed or create jobs for others.
Haruna spoke at the opening of NASENI Skill Acquisition Training and Youth Empowerment for 100 candidates in Ilaro, Ogun State.
Haruna, represented by NASENI’s Coordinating Director ofFinance and Account, Alh. Ibrahim Dauda, said Ogun State was chosen because it is the industrial corridor for innovations.
Besides, he said the state shares borders with Lagos, which is West Africa’s most populous productive and manufacturing centre.
He said: “Development in cutting edge technologies or frontier technologies are the innovations that are shaping the fourth industrial revolution. They are disrupting things and introducing constant changes and standards.
“These technologies include Artificial Intelligence (AI); Robotics; Internet of Things (IoT); Big Data; Block Chain; Additive Manufacturing (3D Printing); Autonomous Vehicles; Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Gene Editing; 5G Network; and Smart Grid and agitations for wireless electricity.
‘’Every aspect of human endeavour; Agriculture, Health, Industry, Transport, Hospitality and others require electricity albeit well advanced Electric Energy.
“Therefore, electrical installation, repairs and maintenance will no longer be meter conduiting, piping or trunking of cable channel and streaming overhead conductors only. It is beyond provision of lighting points and socket outlets.
“Rather, it is about automation remote sensing, remote control and wireless operation. The practitioners’ knowledge needs either regular update to remain relevant and be able to get employment, remain employed or even create jobs for others.
“This training is to familiarise trainees not only on current advances of new and emerging technologies in electrical installations, repairs and maintenance, but to also prepare, equip them and build competencies to meet challenges and opportunities of the development anticipated of the shape and nature of the next Industrial Revolution.
On the choice of Ogun State, he said: “By its location, the state is the industrial corridor for innovations because it borders Lagos which is West Africa’s most populous productive and manufacturing centre and a viable link to outside economic worlds.
“Therefore, preparing youths and their skills in modern methods is a veritable strategy to open them up to opportunities of being ahead of others in this region in terms of skills, practical exposures to new tools, including trouble shooting which this training will give to them at the end or the one-week long exercise.
National Vice President of Licensed Electrical Contractors Association of Nigeria (LECAN), Yinka Akintomide, urged participants to make use of the knowledge and tools given to them by the organisers of the training.
“Some call you roadside electricians, but you will prove them wrong with this training,” he said.
Olu of Ilaro and ruler of Yewaland, Oba Kehinde Olugbele appealed to beneficiaries not to sell the tools given to them.
He said the gadgets would be useful in their trades and training of other youths in the community.
Former Deputy Governor, Alhaja Salimot Badru, said lack of skills has made youths to lose jobs to foreigners.
He said NASENI skill acquisition programme would address the dearth of skills among the youths.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Olamilekan Adeola (Yayi) said the programme was a product of the executive-legislative collaboration aimed at building cognate capacities and improvement in skill of the youths in the energy sector.
Adeola who was represented by his Chief of Staff, Kayode Odunaro, said the training was an addition to his “numerous facilitations of various skills acquisition training and empowerment that had over 10,000 beneficiaries across Lagos and Ogun State.”
He said: “This presidential initiative through NASENI is a veritable way of creating a pool of skilled professionals that would not only be gainfully employed but have potentials to equally generate employment for others in due course. The other benefits of the programme beyond employment are curbing youth restiveness and other vices that crop up with youth idleness and disenchantments.”