ITF begins 2m yearly jobs scheme for youths

   

Nigerian youths are to benefit from two million jobs yearly through the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) skill acquisition and employment creation programme.

ITF Director-General Mrs. Juliet Chukkas-Onaeko said the agency had finalised the scheme’s structure and that it planned to achieve this by collaborating with the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA).

She spoke at the weekend in Lagos at the unveiling of the ITF-NECA Technical Skill Development Project for Ruff ‘n’ Tumble/Betti-O School of Fashion Design in Lagos.

Mrs. Chukkas-Onaeko said: “The plan is to train two million youths annually and put them to work. Already, we have hit the ground running to ensure that we even do much more. We are also coming up with the youth lounges at all our offices across the nation because we want to better engage the youth.

“If we catch the youth and direct them to focus on productive skills and businesses, we would be doing this country a lot of good.”

This scheme, she said, was in line with the commitment of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to reduce the country’s unemployment level through job creation.

She added that the fund had also concluded a survey to determine the top 100 businesses of interest to youths in a bid to sharpen their skills in preferred areas as well as help actualise their goals by providing job opportunities to benefit the youth and the nation.

She lauded the complimentary roles played by NECA, which had created more training facilities by using its member-organisations’ training facilities to train youths.

“What we do is that we reach out to companies that are already contributing to the ITF and have a structured system and a state where they can carry out training programmes within their facilities. We work through NECA, engage them and shortlist them to provide training for our youths,” the director general explained.

The Project Director, ITF-NECA Technical Skills Development Project, Mrs. Helen Jemerigbe, said prospects for employment under the skill programme were very high.

“The skills being addressed by the project were identified through a survey. The programme is so big that we need so many more Nigerians to participate in it,” she said.

The ITF is in the process of finalising the first National Skill Gap Assessment survey for the country, in partnership with the United Nations Development Organisation (UNIDO).

It is a nationwide skill gap assessment to first uncover what skills are lacking in the labour force, those needed by employers in the market and the skills which will be needed in future.