News: ITF To Train 2M Nigerians on Skill Development Annually

Industrial Training Fund, ITF has sought the support of governments at all levels as well as the private sector to achieve its mandate of training two million Nigeria annually under the National Industrial Skills Development Programme, NISDP.

Director General/ Chief Executive of ITF, Dr (Mrs) Juliet Chukkas Onaeko made the appeal yesterday at the opening ceremony of the agency's 6th management retreat with the theme: "Mastering the art of Leading Change", held in Asaba, Delta State.
Onaeko informed that "the NISDP which is the hard skills component of the National Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP) has trained over 35,000 youths nationwide in its first three phases".

This figure, she said was different from the hundreds of thousand youths that were trained through other programmes of the ITF.
She, however, pointed out that "the manpower requirements of the Federal Governments transformation agenda, requires that we should do more".

"Our task will be made easier with the continuous support of governments at all levels and the goodwill of the organised private sector through patronage of our training programmes and prompt remittance of training contributions", she said

The Director General, who urged the Delta State government to impress on both the public and private sector in the state to support ITF, promised that the agency would continue to provide appropriate need based performance improvement intervention to all its clients and stakeholders.

She informed that the choice of Delta for the retreat was not only due to its conducive atmosphere, but also the government's commitment to skills acquisition as means of taking poverty, unemployment and youth restiveness in the state.

Onaeko, however, told the management staff of ITF that the ability to succeed as a corporate body is dependent on their willingness to accept change, saying "as leaders in the ITF, you are expected to be at the forefront of this change process".

In his remarks while declaring open the retreat, Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan expressed the readiness of his administration to partner ITF on skill development with a view to creating more jobs and wealth for the people.

Uduaghan who was represented by his deputy Professor Amos Utuama said government was determined to diversify the state's economy from oil which he noted might continue to be the major revenue caring in the future to skills acquisition to create jobs and generate wealth for the state.

Source: Nigerian Pilot