The Nigerian government launched a new Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) initiative on 30 May, aimed at addressing the country’s rising youth unemployment and underemployment rates. Speaking at the monthly dialogue organised by the Education Writers’ Association of Nigeria (EWAN), the Executive Secretary of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Idris Bugaje, a professor, provided an in-depth explanation of the initiative and responded to questions from participants. Excerpt.
What is new about Nigeria’s new TVET initiative?
Bugaje: It’s good to interrogate government policies to ensure sustainability. Anytime you hear renewed hope, my understanding is that hopes were dashed in the past. That’s why the government is trying to renew those hopes.
The new Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) initiative of the Federal Ministry of Education is one major pillar of this government. You know, when the government came in, it was made the fourth pillar, but I must confess that for many years, TVET has not received attention like it is receiving now. The current initiative is meant to give opportunities to young people to learn skills that can help them meet the demands of industries in Nigeria (construction, transportation etc.), as well as skills that will help them get jobs outside the borders of Nigeria.
Part of it is also to rejuvenate the technical colleges. As you are aware, we have only 129 technical colleges (federal, state and private) as against the over 15,000 senior secondary schools. The proportion is decimally low, less than 1 per cent. So, for that reason, TVET has been very poorly attended to. Now, with this initiative, there is hope that more enrolment will follow, more admissions will be offered, and more young people will opt to go to technical colleges for training. Now, the Federal Colleges, which are 38 in number, have been rebranded. In the past, they used to be Federal Science and Technical Colleges, and when you go to those colleges, you would find 90 per cent of the students in science and only 10 per cent taking technical courses. So, the government said, ‘No, let’s revert to what it was, let it be Federal Technical Colleges. Those who are already in the system will be allowed to graduate, but from this year, there should be no more intake of the science component, only the technical component, and the 38 colleges will all run technical programmes, examined by the National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB).
What are these components of TVET?
Bugaje: One component is the technical colleges that the government has rebranded into TVET 1, TVET 2 and TVET 3, equivalent to SS1, SS2 and SS3. They are going to give a stipend, free accommodation, free feeding to the students, and pay for their attachments to the industry because skills training cannot be done in classrooms and workshops alone; you must go and practice in real-life situation. So that is one component.
Aside from the 38 federal colleges, we are also picking one technical college from every state, so we are going to have 36, giving a total of 74. So, these are the pilots out of the 129. We hope that by the time technical courses are rejuvenated, there will be an increase in admissions, parents will demand more and probably, states will start converting conventional secondary schools into technical colleges.
Technical colleges are meant to feed polytechnics; it is the absence of products of technical colleges that polytechnics are taking inputs from senior secondary schools. In the 60s and early 70s, technical colleges were really feeding the polytechnics. So now, that situation shall be recreated by God’s grace through this intervention. That is one component.
The second component is what is called Master 6, a six-month training to be offered in skills centres accredited by NBTE, and we have almost 800 of them that have already been accredited, and the numbers are increasing, but our target is at least 1,000 in the coming few weeks. So, those skills training centres shall be assigned as where young people will be training, and those who have uploaded their data will now be assigned to some of those training centres. Six-month training for one level of skill, one will choose their skill, and if the centre is offering that skill set, they will be assigned by the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) to go to that training centre.
The period is six months, they will be paid monthly stipend; earlier it was N45,000, but now reduced to N22,500; tuition fee would be paid up to a maximum amount that hasn’t been decided, but probably around N150,000 to N180,000 for the six months, and they will also be paid for certification. This is because in skills training, you don’t allow the institution to issue the certificate. A third party who comes from a professional body has to assess. For instance, the Nigerian Institute of Builders (NIB) will have to assess the quality of skills exhibited by those trainees. Then, they can award certificates, and then, payment for the industrial attachments will also be paid, and that is for Master’s 6.
What are the specific requirements for the Master’s 6 component?
Bugaje: You don’t even need to have any qualification to go for Master’s 6. Even if you don’t know A, B, C, D; even if it is the Arabic alphabet that you know, or whether you are an almajiri or an out-of-school child, or you are a young child and don’t know anything, you can go and register, you can upload your information, the only requirement is your National Identification Number (NIN). Once you have NIN, you can be assigned to any of those skills training centres, and then you get assigned to your choice. So, the NIN capture will bring them not only for this training, but they can enjoy GSM and banking services as this programme helps improve and bring more people to the services.
What about the Master’s 12 component?
Then for Master’s 12, it is limited to vocational enterprise institutions. Most of them are private sector vocational institutions accredited by NBTE, and we have about 84 of them across the country. Of course, not all of them are fully accredited, but those that are fully accredited are also entitled to take students for 12 months. The only thing is, those who can be admitted into vocational enterprise institutions are normally around the age of 15. So, they have to be young people, adolescents, not just anybody of any age. For skills training centres, the one I mentioned under Master’s 6, even if you are 40, 50 and 60 years old, you can go and enroll. But for Master’s 12, you have to be an adolescent under age 15, and then you also have a NIN. So, these are the requirements.
When will these programmes kick off?
Bugaje: We are very hopeful that the technical college component will take off in September. The Master’s 6 and 12 will take off in July, by the grace of God. So, this TVET is really being recreated, and we are going to see a lot of improvement in skilled labour.
At the moment we import from francophone countries in West Africa. They are the ones doing the tiling, the finishing, the Plaster of Paris (POP) and a lot of other services at construction sites across Nigeria. If you go to Maiduguri, people from Chad Republic are crossing over to provide those services. TVET is better in the francophone countries than in the anglophone countries over the years. We were at almost the same level at Independence, but they are now doing much better than us. That narrative is going to change.
So, that is some of the things that we are going to see at the end of this exercise. We will also stop importing labour for different infrastructural projects. Look at the expansion of the railway, gas pipeline, the Dangote refinery, the onshore and offshore services in the oil and gas sector, all of them are being offered by Asians across Nigeria. No other country will allow this kind of scenario, but now the government has realised and we are now trying to correct that through this intervention. It will really give a lot of hope to the young people, and hopefully, the economy of Nigeria will improve.
Read full Interview here at DevReporting
