The Nation Newspaper

Tag: manpower

  • Elizade varsity, Vigeo Power partner on manpower devt

    Authorities of the Elizade University, Ilara-Mokin, Ondo State and Vigeo Power Limited yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the grooming of skilled workforce in the power sector.

    Vigeo Power is the core investor of the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC), one of the distribution companies that emerged from the unbundled Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).

    Managing Director of BEDC, Mrs. Funke Osibodu, said the partnership was to set new standards and improving the power industry human capital requirement.

    Mrs. Osibodu said the newly recruited 200 graduates of the BEDC would be sent to Elizade University for classroom training after undergoing one year on-the-job rotational training.

    She noted that the idea of the partnership was to train and groom existing and newly recruited young graduates as well as non-graduate apprentices to improve performance of the company and ultimately build capacity in the power sector.

  • How ITF is bridging manpower gap

    How ITF is bridging manpower gap

    Despite its challenges, the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) is striving to bridge the manpower gap through aggressive training. The agency has trained 237,561 persons from 5, 815 organisations in the last one year, reports TOBA AGBOOLA.

    For the nation to be out of its economic woes, constant training and retraining programmes are required for the youths to fit into new and existing jobs. One of the reasons for its economic woes, according to experts, is lack of training, which has created a huge gap in manpower. This, perhaps, was the reason for the establishment of the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) some 43 years ago.

    According to its Director-General (DG), Dr Juliet Chukkas-Onaeko, the agency has intensified efforts at closing the industrial gap. Since its inception, the ITF has fed the industry with able hands, thus sustaining the measured growth that has so far been recorded.

    The fund, under the current DG, has trained many youths on skills acquisition in the last one year. In the last year, the ITF has trained 237,561 Nigerians from 5, 815 organisations.

    Also, 704 special intervention programmes were implemented, out of which 202,560 trainees secured employment. Not done, about 16,211 Nigerian women benefitted from specialised intervention programmes of the ITF and 83, 050 students equally participated in the Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme.

    The agency has also helped in training 1000 youths each from the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). All these efforts were geared towards bridging the wide industrial gap in the country.

    In a chat with the DG, at the graduation ceremony of the inaugural set of automobile technicians trained by Truck Masters Nigeria Ltd,  under the ITF-NECA Technical Skills Development Project (TSDP), she claimed that her administration has upgraded the bandwidth of the Fund’s communication system to serve current resource requirements, just as the agency’s library was digitized and revenue and reimbursement portals established.

    The agency, she said, also entered into collaborations with Cement Technology Institute of Nigeria, for the training of 4000 artisans; Wavecrest College of Hospitality, for revamping MSN Culinary Department. Others are Nigeria Institute of Builders and Shell Petroleum Development Company.

    According to her, the agency also strengthened its collaboration with Nigerian’s Employers Consultative Association (NECA) and expanded the ITF/DVT (Germany Chamber of Crafts and Commerce) to train apprentices in line with Germany’s dual system. She noted that her administration last year graduated the first batch of MSTC Trainees, reviewed and secured approval for a new staff regulations and conditions of service.

    The ITF, Dr Chukkas-Onaeko said, is also engaging relevant stakeholders on training and effective implementation of its mandate, and sensitising Nigerians on the need to transit to non oil economy.

    Highlighting how the fund is initiating proactive measures to achieve its mandate, Onaeko said students under its training programmes are challenged to impart knowledge provided by the fund and take charge of leading the nation and the continent into an era of sustainable economic development.

    She said the vision of economic leadership on the continent by the country can only be achieved when adequate attention and commitment are shown by stakeholders in the quest to imbibe the nation’s youths with continuous vocational and technical knowledge that can create jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities for them and others.

    According to her, trainees sponsored by the Fund in collaboration with the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) and other organisations would soon get international certifications.

    She said ITF is working on getting an international certification programme for its trainees to enable them work anywhere in the world. According to her, the Fund has also been working with various established players in various industries such as agriculture, oil and gas, and automobile maintenance in order to train more youths.

    The ITF’s continuous training through these collaborations, she said, is a move to support the government in reducing the rate of unemployment by placing technical education in the front burner. “I want to congratulate the graduating students, being the first set under the Automobile and Heavy Duty Maintenance and Technician Programme. With government’s automobile policy, I think this is the best time to take up such a task as taking up a skill in automobile industry, especially for heavy duty trucks, which are more complex,” she said.

    According to her, the initiative is a major move to support government’s efforts at reducing the rate of unemployment among the youths. “Most importantly, it has been helping the players in the various industries to raise new breeds of excellently skilled youths to work for them here instead of relying on expatriates,” she said, adding that, “the ITF has been working on certifications for our trainees so that they can work anywhere in the world, because our programmes seem not to be enough”. “The certification, when ready will have our trainees take exams to qualify them for a diploma in the field of their training,” she said.

    Dr Onaeko said this was necessary because it has been difficult to attract young people to technical skills because of the poor remuneration and recognition that the sector  has been suffering. ”We have, therefore, been training our students not only on skilled manpower, but alongside good work ethics, good customer care, and also entrepreneurial skills,” she said.

    NECA’s Director-General, Mr. Segun Oshinowo, said the purpose of the synergy is to reduce the rate of unemployment among youths by training them on how they can create jobs even with little capital at their disposal. “By being here, we hope to create jobs by getting the youths trained so that they can stand on their own,” he said, noting that there are huge potentials in the agricultural sector especially, in the area of aquaculture.

    The NECA boss appealed to the government to support the initiatives with funds as both organisations lack financial capacity to carry out their assignments.

    Managing Director, Truckmasters Ltd, Mr Tony Arenyeka, lauded the ITF-NECA collaboration for impacting the lives of the youths through technical skills acquisition. Arenyeka said Truckmasters Academy was training in areas of specialisation in electronics, mechanical panel beating and spraying, and workshop administration.

    The Project Manager, TSDP, Mrs Helen Jemerigbe, said the training was a baby of the project, which has been on for six years. She said the project had been working with 12 companies, and technical colleges all over the country, and the training with Truckmasters Nigeria Ltd was the result of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in 2014.

  • N300b required for manpower training annually, says ITF

    About N300 billion is required annually for the training of  two million people on various skills in the country, the Director-General, Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Dr Juliet Chukkas-Onaeko has said. Chukkas-Onaeko, who made this known at the 5th ITF Trainers’ Forum held in Abuja recently, said the agency had the capacity to train over two million Nigerians annually on various skills to boost the national industrial revolution plan of the Federal Government.

    At the forum themed ‘The Place of Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in the Actualisation of the Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP),’she identified fund as the agency’s major set back and appealed to its partners and other stakeholders to support the good course, which had the capacity to industrialise the country.

    The Director-General said the train the trainers conference was not only apt but timely, given the current thrust of the present management to pursue a 4-point training agenda. She said the agenda were training of two million Nigerians annually, the full automation of ITF business processes, ensuring 100 per cent payment of training contributions, and ensuring 100 per cent implementation of SIWES.

    “We are all aware of the unemployment situation in the country. We are equally aware of Mr. President’s commitment to transform the national economy through accelerated industrialisation using the National Enterprise Development Programme (NEDEP) and the National Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP) as vehicles.

    “It is our mandate to supply the manpower requirement of the NIRP and NEDEP in collaboration with other agencies of government like Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) and others,’’ she said.

    According to her, the Bank of Industry (BoI) is a vital partner, which ITF can leverage on its financial muzzle to achieve some of the set goals. “Our desire to entrench this collaboration however, gave rise to the introduction of the National Skills Development Programme (NISDP).

    Through the NISDP, we have trained 37,000 Nigerians from the 36 states of the federation and FCT, which is however, far low if the manpower requirements of the NIRP are to be met. I believe that this forum will, like others in the past, generate the ideas and innovations that will lead to the achievement of all we have set out to do,” she said.

    Earlier, Mr John Enyi, Director of Training, said the forum was not an annual ritual, but equipped to proffer solutions to the country’s manpower deficit. The forum attracted hundreds of senior officials of ITF, stakeholders and trainers from across the country.

  • ‘IT students’ payment will stop in 2014’

    ‘IT students’ payment will stop in 2014’

    When in 1971, the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) was established by Decree 47, it was charged with producing skilled manpower, among others. Its Director-General, Prof Longmas Wapmuk, in this interview with TOBA AGBOOLA and OLUWAKEMI DAUDA, speaks on the workings of the fund and its role in achieving the Federal Government’s Transformation Agenda.

     

     

     

    How long have you been at the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) and what is your experience?

    Well, I was appointed in August 2006. This means that I’m slightly above seven years in the organisation now. When I came on board, many companies, particularly, the foreign ones were not interested in training at the ITF. They believed that our staff were not very competent. We addressed this problem by training many of our people overseas. And today, in Lagos, we have many training programmes given to us to implement by major companies. A proof of the rise in training consciousness, on account of ITF intervention, is the increasing request for reimbursement by employers registered, and the remitting of training contributions to the fund. Reimbursement of training contributions is done on condition that ITF’s guidelines on training are met. Therefore, the number of employers that request for and get reimbursed, indicates that training consciousness has really increased.

    One of the visions of the ITF, when it was established in 1971, was to be one of the foremost field training and development organisations. Would you say your organisation has achieved this aim?

    I believe the organisation has achieved its aim. The ITF was little known before I took over as the chief executive. We had problem of poor funding. The budget of the organisation was around N3.6 billion, which was too small to achieve all we wanted to achieve. Also, the members of staff were not happy because there was no motivation and the salary was very poor. The relationship between ITF and corporate bodies was not good. My management was also dissolved. These and many more are some of the challenges.

    So, how did you address these challenges?

    The ITF currently is a household name. First of all, I took a trip to Lagos. I met with stakeholders in the organised sector. We discussed on the way forward. This, of course, enhanced our relationship. As I said, my management was dissolved, so I had to set up a new management. Restructuring and re-organisation took place; and today we have about six vibrant departments in the organisation. I was able to get an improved salary structure for the staff and all the outstanding promotions were implemented.

    How did you address the issue of poor funding?

    We discovered that, over the years, the money available for training has been very small and we thought that there was the need to improve the level of funding. When I came, I started by soliciting for money from government. I drew up a plan and followed it up by going to the supervising ministry, the Education Trust Fund (ETF) and many other places but I could not generate any revenue from my efforts. So, I decided to look inwards to see areas to generate revenue from, if we are to function properly as provided in the law that set us up. I found out that in many countries I visited, they have similar laws but with no reimbursement clause because they use all the money to train. But in our own case, we reimburse 60 percent to the industry and 40 percent is left for us to pay our salaries and do the training.

    On assumption of office as the Director-General, I found out that there was a law establishing a Fund. The law provides for the collection of some money to sustain the activities of the ITF. As I said earlier, when I came in, the level of fund generation was very low. Apart from the fact that the budget of the ITF was around N3.6 billion, the law stipulates that ITF should collect one per cent of firms’ and government agencies’ annual staff salaries. ITF is sustained by contributions from the organised private sector. But, when they contribute this money, ITF does not keep all of it. We require them to train their own staff; so part of the training is done by them. When they train, in accordance with our new law, we refund 50 per cent of what we collected from them. So, we do not keep all the money. What is left is not enough to fund us, and to equip our centres. That is why, of recent, you see that we have been making a lot of efforts to collect revenue.

    Have you started collecting the one per cent of workers’, and what is the level of compliance?

    Yes, we have started collecting the money but what we have collected so far is not much. This is because we are just implementing the legislation and there are so many things in the amended Act. If you look at section six of that law and the subsection, the level of compliance is not high, but it has improved. For instance, the number of companies have improved from 5,000 to 20,000. Our revenue has increased to about N18 billion now. Mind you, about 800,000 companies are registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). So, you can imagine 20,000 companies out of about 867,000 companies. If we can get hold of at least 300,000 companies, it will solve most of our problems. We still have a long way to go, though, but I know we will get there.

    The mission of ITF is to set and regulate training standards and offer direct training intervention in industrial and commercial skills and technology. How have you been able to achieve this?

    Since I assumed office as the Chief Executive of the Industrial Training Fund, we have scaled up the training of our staff both locally and abroad with the objective of enhancing their professional competence. We trained members of our staff internationally, particularly in the area of technical vocational education. The objective here is for them to come back and impart knowledge to those at home, so that we would be able to build a core of highly trained technical manpower. At the home level, we have organised short courses for our staff.

    Consequently, the ITF has created a crop of well-trained development officers, some of whom are certified and recognised internationally in their areas of specialisation. For instance, we’re very good in the areas of occupational safety, health and environment. Also, we are involved in productivity and efficiency improvement training.

    Can you tell us about your training centre? How are they functioning?

    The ITF training centre, particularly our model skill training centre, which is located in this compound, has become a ‘Mecca’ for Technical Vocational Education. We have centres in Lagos, Jos and Kano. We have a modern one in Abuja. We have been able to complete the one in Lokoja. When people come around we start to showcase our centre, which we built with technical support from the Institute of Technical Education Services of Singapore. The ITF also is always at the cutting edge of technical vocational skills training in Nigeria. In addition to bringing people for training, the ITF takes training to the people in the nooks and cranny of Nigeria by deploying a number of mobile training workshops decked with the state-of-the-art modern equipment tools and facilities in eleven trade areas.

    So, when we have these mobile workshops, we would be able to take training to the doorsteps of our people. All these attest to our technology-driven processes, functions and programmes in the ITF. And definitely with all these efforts of offering direct intervention in industrial and commercial skills training and development with competent staff, we believe that we will be doing a good service to our country.

    We also proposed something to government, which we presented to stakeholders known as National Industrial Skills Development Programme (NISDP) which is an aspect of the national industrial development plan for the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment.

    This plan envisages that we will have industrial skills training centres in the 36 states and Abuja. And in each of these centres, we have provision for training people in 24 trade areas. We have also made provision in this plan for Centres for Advance Skills Training for Employment (CASTE) and these are bigger centres that have provision for about 45 trade areas and these will be located in the six geo-political zones of the country.

    How much does it take to establish each of the centres?

    The skill centres are very costly to establish because some equipment can cost up to N15million. We have estimated that the Industrial Skills Centres in the 36 states and Abuja will have provision for 24 trades and will cost about N3.5 billion, while the bigger ones, the advance skills centres in the six geo-political zones, will cost about N5.5 billion. So, if you cost it, you will realise it’s a lot of money. But we have envisaged that with our amended Act, we will be able to generate the required money over time to help us establish the centres.

    Enlighten us on your other programmes, such as SIWES?

    We have been organising the Student Industrial Works Experience Scheme (SIWES) for students and there is hardly any technical person in Nigeria that has gone through tertiary education that does not know about the ITF. We have been able to pay some of our SIWES students. We have paid about 430,000 participants between 2007 and now. However, the issue of paying students by the government will stop next year. We want to focus on the training. In fact, we have recommended that government should de-emphasise the payment of money and focus on training.

    What role is ITF playing in the economy, especially in the Transformation Agenda?

    The ITF is one of the major parastatals of the Federal Government. It is one of the organisations being used by the Federal Government to achieve the Transformation Agenda of this administration. The ITF, according to the Act establishing it, has the responsibility of providing, promoting and encouraging the acquisition of skills in commerce and industry. It is to generate enough manpower to meet the needs of the economy. Over time, the ITF has been performing these functions. Human capital development is a sine qua non to the economy of any country. Without identifying and developing technical manpower, most of the industries and organisations will not be able to function and that is where the ITF comes in. We are charged with developing and training and providing technical manpower. And you can see that most of our activities are geared towards this noble objective. So, you cannot say the ITF has lost its relevance – no! In fact, the ITF has rather become even more relevant in the light of the Federal Government’s aspiration to meet up with the leading economies of the world.

     

  • Oracle to invest more in manpower training

    ORACLE Corporation plans to invest more in manpower training by increasing the number of the beneficiaries of its programmes in tertiary institutions in the country.

    Senior Vice President, Eastern Europe, Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Middle East & Africa, Alfonso Di Ianni, said the firm is doing this because of the resources and population of the country.

    “We have a lot of programmes for the development of Nigeria in the future.We believe in developing the people (youths) because the people (youth segement) make the country. We will encourage the creation of more Nigerian solutions, more Nigerian innovations. To achieve this, we have several programmes with some universities in the country. We have programmes with eight universities, which allow us to equip them and ensure they are given instruction using the appropriate technology. We believe that if we can equip the universities with the right technologies, that will open a lot of employment opportunities and with the knowledge acquired, they can contribute to value creation in the country,” he told The Nation in Lagos.

    Shedding more light on the programme, the firm’s Country Manager, Layo Ajayi, said it has opened what she called the Oracle Academy where it offers the training that will make them ICT compliant after graduation.

    “What we are doing is that we opened Oracle Academy. We ensure that modern technologies are used by these students and they actually add it to their curriculum so that by tiime, they are graduating from the university, they are not looking for jobs, they are not inundated with the pains of asking what they are going to do to earn a living.

    “We make sure that skills required by SMBs are taught in schools. We are not only encouraging them to obtain the certificate, but equipping them with hand on about how to deploy the skill acquired to work in any organisation whether it is in Oracle or not,” he added.

     

     

     

  • Skilled manpower bane of aviation, says Senator

    What is the major challenge facing aviation? It is the dearth of skilled manpower, says Chairman, Senate Committee on Aviation, Senator Hope Uzodinma Speaking at the opening of the Constitutive Assembly of the Association of African Training Organisation (AATO) organised by the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT) in Abuja, Uzodinma said this deficiency had prevented the sector from growing and gaining better global recognition despite its potential. Over the years, he said, there had been over dependence on the International Aviation Training Institute, at the expense of other African training centres. Uzodinma said: “Ours is to encourage them to ensure that the number of foreign training that has besieged the industry will be reduced. “NCAT, if given all the support it requires is in a position to train aircraft engineers, inspectors and instructors that can train others with a view to ensuring that local and international needs of the industry are obtained here locally because we have the resources. “But I think what we are lacking here is that we don’t have the manpower arrangement in sufficient numbers and if they are encouraged to intensify their efforts, we will have all we need to meet up with global expectations.” Also, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) Managing Director George Uriesi has said the sector holds the key to Africa’s economic prosperity. He spoke at a meeting of the Airports Council International (ACI), African region, in Morocco. Uriesi said aviation was vital to the region’s growth. He harped on the designation of airports as regional hubs to maximise their potential, stressing that the development of cargo ports was aimed at opening up the country to benefit from its full potential as an agro-allied economy. Uriesi said: “The obstacle-removing leadership provided by our Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Stella Oduah, has repositioned the country as a serious global player ready to occupy its pride of place.” The conference, he said, fell within the framework of the initiative launched by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and Airport Council International (ACI), to promote safety. This, he said, had allowed stakeholders to contribute to the requirements of a safe and secure air transportation system. The conference, he added, was meant to sensitise participants on the importance of runway safety and the need for collaboration, among stakeholders in air transport.

  • Cross River lacks adequate manpower, workers lament

    The Cross River State Council of the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN) has called on the state government to employ more health workers for more effective health care delivery.

    The chairman of the union, Comrade Andem Usua, told newsmen that though the government was doing well in the primary and secondary health sector, it lacked adequate manpower to effectively run the health sector.

    He pointed out some health centres that needed about 50 workers have just 10 to 15.

    Usua said: “There are so many well-trained health workers in the state. They should be employed so that the old and able hands would be able to bring them up, so that when the older ones retire, the younger ones can take over effectively.

    “Majority of health workers have retired and most of them have not been replaced.

    “We want to appeal to the state government to employ more health workers because as those who are retiring are going out, if the new ones are not employed, no one will give them the immediate training for them to catch up with the job.”

    He said despite the shortage of manpower they were still doing their best