By Kure Tashilane.
Nasarawa State Governor Engineer Abdullahi A. Sule and the Director General Industrial Training Fund (ITF) Dr. Afiz Ogun Oluwatoyin performed ground breaking ceremony for the construction Lafia area office complex.
The brief ceremony took place on Thursday August 15th, on a four hectares expanse of land situated between IMAP and Wing Commander Abdullahi Ibrahim Vocational and Technology Institute in Ombi 1 Lafia.
Speaking during the historic occasion the ITF DG, Dr. Afiz Ogun Oluwatoyin appreciated Nasarawa State Governor Engineer Abdullahi A. Sule for providing ITF four hectares expanse of land upon which their Lafia Area Office will be built.
” In this regard, we express our profound appreciation to His Excellency Engineer Abdullahi A. Sule the Executive Governor of Nasarawa State. Sir, your action has not only strengthened the existing relationship between ITF and the government of Nasarawa State but further reinforces your reputation as one dedicated to the development of the citizens of the state through enhanced skills acquisition.
The ITF DG stressed that the ground breaking ceremony opens up another chapter in the relationship that exists between the Industrial Training Fund and Nasarawa State Government in opening up access to funds that will train more citizens of Nasarawa State going forward.
” When completed, the building will provide modern office accommodation, training rooms, a vocational wing for skills training in various trades and an administrative block for ITF staff ” The DG explained.
He pointed out that the facility will accelerate impartation of technical and vocational education training (TVET) as well as address service delivery challenges through Skill Up Artisans (SUPA) Programmes which has three exit.
The DG ITF revealed that the Federal Government of Nigeria has initiated viable intervention programmes amongst which is the Skill-Up Artisans Programme (SUPA).
” SUPA is a transformative initiative of the Federal Government under the Industrial Training Fund aimed at registering, up-skilling, licensing and empowering Nigerians artisans for local and international job opportunities ” DG ITF said.
Dr. Afiz stressed that about 6,000 artisans had been selected and registered under SUPA covering over 20 trade and craft areas with a specialized curricular for project management and and certification in collaboration with Chartered Institute of Project Managers of Nigeria and others to drive the whole thing.
The SUPA Programme is free for all Nigerians he noted and that student of polytechnic should take advantage of the initiative as a time is coming when Nigeria artisans cannot work being certified and licensed.
” We are not just going to leave artisans like that. We are going to have three (3) exist. The first is Talent Export; we are meeting with Chambers of Commerce of several Countries, identify the areas they lack artisans in their Countries for the purpose of training our artisans to meet their need …
” The second area is providing jobs for our SUPA trained artisans through a coordinated approach to address companies specific needs and demands and the third area is the enrollment of SUPA skilled artisans in government assisted incubated businesses in various trades areas and vocations ” Dr. Afiz Ogun Oluwatoyin explained.
Engineer Abdullahi A. Sule while speaking congratulated Dr. Afiz Ogun Oluwatoyin for the passion and commitment he has demonstrated so far in his leadership approach which has transformed ITF completely thereby making him ‘ITF New Governor’.
” Sitting there listening to you DG, I have lost all I wanted to say as you kept on emphasizing some of the things I intended to say. You remind me of what I said in 2019 while I was being sworn in as Governor. I felt so relieved that we have a different ITF today,” Sule said.
He pointed out that the decision to site the ITF Lafia Area Office where it is, is to have it ITF sandwiched by Isa Mustapha Agwai Polytechnic and the Wing Commander Abdullahi Ibrahim Vocational and Technology Institute at the same time as the expanse of land given to ITF is situated between the two Institutions.
Engineer Sule while explaining the importance of acquiring technical and vocational skills; recounted how his technical secondary school skills helped him pass through hard periods in the United States of America during his University degree programme.
“As we were graduating from technical college – I had employment opportunities from five different Institutions. PAN in Kaduna did everything to employ me, Textile Company gave me an offer, Kuda Nails gave me an offer, Kaduna Polytechnic gave me an offer and then Plateau Electricity Corporation gave me an offer…
” And I took the offer from Plateau State Electricity Corporation so that I could be close to where I am pursuing my scholarship to go to America – because I wanted to go to the University…
” That technical skills I had acquired at the college gave me the opportunity to be able to finish; scholarship or no scholarship as I will go and work and make 75 dollars 3 cents an hour. Work 40 hours a week to earn 173 to 180 dollars with over-time and that was sufficient to keep me going in school. That is what technical skills does for you, he narrated.
He equally revealed that even his performance at the University was different due to the technical knowledge of the theory he had.
Engineer Sule urged the youths especially graduates to take advantage of the various technical skills acquisition programmes the Wing Commander Abdullahi Ibrahim Vocational and Technology Institute offers and the new SUPA Federal Government initiatives to acquire life sustaining vocational training.