The Executive Secretary of TETFUND, Prof
Suleiman Bogoro, who decried drop in low and medium skilled jobs in Nigeria,
said it was unfortunate that most of the medium skilled jobs were being handled
by people from Francophone countries.
Speaking while declaring open a
Two-Day capacity building workshop for
heads of selected institutions and staff of TETFund Centres of Excellence on
Tuesday in Abuja, Bogoro called on COEs and the polytechnics to focus on development, entrepreneurship and start-ups.
Stressing the need to improve on their
capacity, TETFund boss explained that it is only by initiating new innovations
that the country will be on the path of
rapid development.
He said the two-day event was organised to
ensure proper understanding of the concept of the centres by those that will be
in charge of them.
According to him, “For the polytechnics,
the centres of excellence are to focus on skills development and support
entrepreneurship, start ups.
“In areas of competitive advantage and you
know that skills development is central, it is fundamental. If you miss that
area, if your polytechnics does not have the capacity to develop skills or the
entrepreneural ability of its students and researchers, then it has failed the
nation.
“If you go to construction sites, it has
improved recently, believe me, Some 10 years back, you will see Francophone
personnel that are at construction site more than Nigerians, that shows
something is missing, but the polytechnics are trying to address it.”
Saying that the Centres of Excellence in
the colleges of education will focus on relevant pedagogical development, Prof
Bogoro added that beneficiary centre
will get about $2million.
Executive Secretary of National Board for
Technical Education (NBTE), Prof. Idris Muhammad Bugaje, commended Bogoro for
his passion for institutionilisation of Research and Development.
The NBTE boss also expressed serious
concerns that most major infrastructure projects in the country are being
dominated by skilled personnel from other countries.
According to him, there is need for our
polytechnics to be focused on skills training, “that is why we say from 2023,
NBTE shall never go for any accreditation to any polytechnic where there is not
a single skills training centre.”
Recall that TETFund recently established
Centres of Excellence in six polytechnics and six colleges of education.
The beneficiary institutions selected from
each of the six geo-political zones in the country are; Federal Polytechnic
Nasarawa, Nasarawa State; Federal College of Education, Pankshin, Plateau State
(North Central), Federal Polytechnic, Bauchi, Bauchi State, Federal College
Education, Yola, Adamawa State, (North East), Federal Polytechnic, Kaduna,
Kaduna State, Federal College of Education, Zaria, Kaduna State (North-West).
The South-East has Federal Polytechnic,
Nekede, Imo State and the Alvan Federal College of Education, Owerri, Imo
State. The South-South’s beneficiaries include Federal Polytechnic, Auchi, Edo
State and Federal College of Education (Technical), Omoku, Rivers State while
Yaba College of Technology, Lagos and Adeyemi College Education, Ondo State
made it from the South-West.
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