The Federal Government plans to train 370,000 artisans this year to boost skills development and employment generation. Mr Afolabi Imoukhuede, Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Job Creation and Youth Employment, disclosed this last week, at the flag-off of the Construction Skills Training and Empowerment Programme (C-STEmp), in Abuja. “The Federal Government has plans to train 370,000 artisans this year…It has already been decided. We have had a fruitful discussion on it with the Vice President and relevant ministers and we are looking forward to working with the C-STEmp to achieve the goal,” Imoukhuede stated.
C-STEmp, an initiative of J.Hausen Ltd, a construction management consultancy firm is an accelerated skills development project to prepare eligible beneficiaries for employment as Artisans in construction industry. In his message, Mr Babatunde Fashola, Minister of Power, Works and Housing reiterated the Federal Government’s promise to act promptly to address shortage of skilled Nigerian artisans. He recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari recently decried the influx of foreign building trade workers in the country.
According to Fashola, the training would be of benefit to the ministry since it already has vocational training centres for artisans and craftsmen in Yaba and Onikan in Lagos state and Ikeduru in Imo state. He commended the skills empowerment project and urged that the training should be focused to achieve its intended purpose in order to supply skilled manpower in housing and construction industry.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Institute of Building (NIOB) in collaboration with Council of Registered Builders of Nigeria (CORBON) is set to train and certify 200,000 artisans this year.
NIOB President said the empowerment programme was aimed at developing a pool of well trained and qualified manpower for the housing and construction industry. He added that two million artisans would be trained in the next five years. “NIOB is ready to commence training, assessment and certification of the Building Craftsmen and Artisans in collaboration with CORBON and the DFID sponsored C-STEmp. We have developed and validated a National Occupational Standards for the key building construction trades, Masonry, Carpentry, Plumbing, Electrical installation, Painting and Decoration among others,” he said.
Shuaib said a good number of Assessors and Verifiers were also being trained with the assistance of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) with the training of mater trainers starting immediately. He said the skill gap in the Nigerian construction sector and poor quality project delivery has become a trend in Nigeria which is of great concern for NIOB and CORBON. He added that the need to relieve the project sites of unskilled, inefficient and dissatisfied workers engaged in building trades necessitated the partnership with the NBTE.
Culled from Vanguard