Chief Joseph Ari, the Director-General of the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), said on Friday that the organisation trained 30,000 people in different skills acquisition between 2018 and 2019.
Ari said this in an interview with newsmen in Enugu, adding that the number was grossly insignificant vis-a-vis the nation’s unemployment rate.
He said, “This may appear like a drop of water in the ocean of the unemployment challenge in the country.’’
He therefore appealed to governments at all levels, communities and stakeholders to sponsor more trainees for skills acquisition as part of the collective efforts to tackle unemployment in the country.
According to him, “unemployment has gone from being a societal issue to that of communities and even families.
“This is due to the vast number of the unemployed around us going by the country’s population projections.
“It is in this regard that the training fund calls on communities, stakeholders as well as state and local governments to sponsor more trainees for skills acquisition to stem the tide of unemployment.
He said that the organisation we had resolved to step up its skill acquisition efforts in 2019 so that more Nigerians would acquire skills for employability and entrepreneurship.
“We shall expand intake for our existing programmes and introduce new ones,” Ari said.
He said that the organisation had already commenced the implementation of an information and communication programme, called the Information Technology Skills Empowerment Programme (ISEP).
“ISEP is designed to equip the Nigerian youth with the relevant skills for job creation,’’ he said.
Ari further said that other existing programmes, including the National Industrial Skills Development Programme and Women Skills Empowerment Programme, would be expanded to run several streams in order for more Nigerians to benefit.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Fund was established on Oct. 8, 1971 to provide, promote, and encourage acquisition of skills in industry and commerce.
The objective is to generate a pool of indigenous trained manpower sufficient to meet the private and public sector needs.
(NAN)
