- BEGINS EQUIPMENT SUPPORT FOR TRAINING CENTRES
- MOVES TO EMPOWER 100,000 YOUTHS
- PRAISES TINUBU, MINISTERS, STAKEHOLDERS
Director General of Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Dr. Afiz Oluwatoyin Ogun, has said 100,000 artisans would be empowered through the SUPA Phase 11 Deployment and Training Programme.
He also said all actions of the agency have been with the best intention to aid easy cultivation of manpower to meet industrial needs and provide continuous development/life-long skill for graduates to match them with available opportunities in the industrial sector.
Speaking to newsmen shortly after the Fund completed its latest round of assessment of privately owned Training Centers collaborating with it for the delivery of SUPA program across Nigeria, Ogun explained that 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.
The ITF boss said that SUPA Phase II deployment and training process will be pursued with vigour and in the most transparent, accountable and comprehensive manner.
‘’ ITF will increase the number of privately owned training centers from 880 (Eight Hundred and Eighty) to 1500 (One Thousand Five Hundred). This is to enable it to achieve the target of graduating 100,000 (One Hundred Thousand) artisans in this phase’’.
The Director General said the 100,000 (One Hundred Thousand) 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 (Seven Hundred Thousand) registered artisans on its SUPA platform.
‘’As this population is scattered across every local government area in Nigeria, it is necessary to have at least two training centers per local government to guarantee ease of access by artisans’’.
According to him, the training centre accreditation will involve the examination of the 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. Upon completion of the registration 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. The exercise will commence and end before April 30, 2025’’.
The DG stated that the Fund will do everything possible to improve the capacities of accredited training centers to meet the target of SUPA which is international certification.
‘’Over 3000 (Three Thousand) instructors from the 880 (Eight Hundred and Eighty) accredited training centers have undergone train-the-trainer courses. The Fund is developing a holistic system for equipment support for training centers and also seeking ways to ease access to finance’’.
Ogun restated that the SUPA Phase II training entails training of artisans in soft skills of Project Management, Professional Ethics and Patriotism and Industrial Health and Safety.
On Project Management, he said 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 training which is based on 30% theory and 70% practical as well as training in Entrepreneurship’’.
Particularly, the ITF BOSS emphasized the sincerity and sense of direction of President Bola Tinubu to build a better nation.
He lauded him for his deep foresight.
Ogun commended the Minister of Industry for his leadership.
He applauded the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance for his solid support for the program.
He also praised the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, MAN and Nigerian Employees Consultative Association, and other relevant public and private Organizations that have reckoned with the SUPA program.
Ogun assured that in a short while, Nigerians will begin to feel the impact of all the good work being done behind the scenes by ITF in the form of better skilled workmen in relevant trade areas.
‘’The skills acquisition programme exposes graduates to local and international awarding bodies to certify them fit for local and international markets’’.