By Felix Khanoba
The Industrial Training Fund (ITF) has revamped its approach to skills development by discontinuing the distribution of starter packs to graduates of its artisan training programmes.
Instead, the Fund is now focusing on equipping trainees with both local and international certifications to enhance their competitiveness in the global labour market.
ITF Director-General, Dr. Afiz Oluwatoyin Ogun, revealed the shift during a press briefing in Abuja, following a comprehensive assessment of private training centres partnering with the Fund on the Skill-Up Artisans (SUPA) program across the country.
As the second phase of SUPA gets underway, the Fund is expanding its network of affiliated training centers from 880 to 1,500 to meet the ambitious goal of graduating 100,000 artisans in this phase alone.
According to Ogun, the new batch of trainees will include artisans who completed the foundational phase of SUPA—numbering 29,000—as well as a portion of the over 700,000 individuals already registered on the program’s digital platform.
According to him, 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.
The training centre accreditation process is a comprehensive process that involves the examination of corporate structure of Training Centres evaluation of their physical infrastructure and set-up, appraisal of their training equipment and assessment of competence/qualifications of their instructors, with each training center required to firstly register on the SUPA platform of the ITF.
He said 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.
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 (Three Thousand) instructors from the 880 (Eight Hundred and Eighty) accredited training centers have undergone train-the-trainer courses.
According to him, the Fund is developing a holistic system for equipment support for training centers and also seeking ways to ease access to finance, adding 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.
This , he said, is a critical component of the skill-eco-system which the Fund is seeking to build in Nigeria to aid easy cultivation of manpower to meet industrial need and provide continuous development/life-long skill for graduates to match them with available opportunities in the industrial sector.
The ITF boss restated that the SUPA Phase II training entails training of artisans in soft skills of Project Management, Professional Ethics & Patriotism and Industrial Health & Safety.
On the 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.
While saying the examination and certification process of artisans in this phase will be handled by CIPMN, the DG said SUPA Phase II is to take eight weeks and successful artisans will automatically graduate to the final phase of SUPA which is Phase III, adding that the phase will cover the actual technical trainings which is based on 30% theory and 70% practical as well as training in Entrepreneurship.
Dr. Ogun noted 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.
He thanked the President Bola Tinubu for his deep foresight on this critical issue besetting our economy, the Minister of Industry for his leadership, the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance for his solid support for the program, 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.
He 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.
