ITF plan youth productivity till 2025

By Kingsley Chukwuka

The Industrial Training Fund (ITF), has rolled out a three years strategic plan aimed at equipping youths with employable skills that will stand the test of time.

The well crafted plan will run from 2022 to 2025, the Director General ITF, Sir Joseph Ari said.

Addressing newsmen in Jos, Thursday, Ari said training Nigerian youths on skill acquisition remains the nation’s key to greatness, economic growth and development.

According to him: “The plan, which was initially slated to terminate in 2022, was, however, reviewed in 2020 to address gaps that were identified in the course of its implementation, and for us to appropriately respond to the negative impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on our numerous clients.

“While it lasted, the plan enabled the ITF to aggressively address service challenges by computerizing our operations, tackling infrastructural challenges to expand access to Nigerians desirous of acquiring skills, and generally address a gamut of other structures that were impinging on our ability to effectively discharge our mandate for National economic growth and development and the general good of the Nigerian people.

“Despite the numerous achievements recorded by the Fund on account of these initiatives, the ITF has realized that more needs to be done if the Nation  must fully tackle the numerous socio-economic problems that are bedeviling the Nation”, he said.

Ari who lamented the high level of poverty in the Nation said the ITF in line with its mandate would continue to develop a vast pool of skilled manpower sufficient to meet the needs of the public and private sectors of the national economy coupled with resolutions at the recently concluded ITF National Skills Summit in Abuja.

“We found it imperative to review and refocus the strategies to address poverty and to meet the skills requirement of the nation in line with global best practices.

“In arriving at our strategies, we considered the need to scale up our activities to address the soaring unemployment and other socio-economic challenges by leveraging on our three Es (Experience, Expertise and Expansive network), deployment of technology for wider coverage and more flexible service delivery.

“The internal components of the plan, which entail value reorientation, Industrial Development, Commercialization of ITF Facilities, Alternative Funding Window, Deployment and Promotion, Annual Budget Preparation and, Revenue Generation are intended to drive the external components of the new policy direction, which covers Standardization and Certification, Technical and Vocational Skills Training Programmes, Skills Intervention Programmes, Electronic and Virtual Learning and, Optimal Utilization of Skills Training Centres (STCs) and Vocational Wings (VWs)”, he said.

Ari added that the Fund  is committed to leveraging technology for flexible service delivery and widening the scope of its operations through electronic and virtual learning platforms.