The year 2024, over which the curtains will be drawn in less than two months, has been an eventful year for the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Technical, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Education (OSSAP-TVEE). It has been a year during which the office, headed by the highly motivated SSAP-TVEE, Madam Abiola Arogundade, has led from the front in the efforts to establish and consolidate a solid platform for the real takeoff of the technical, vocational and entrepreneurial skills training and acquisition in the country.
Deriving from one of the pillars of the Renewed Hope Agenda of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration, which is to achieve a paradigm shift in the nation’s education system, the OSSAP-TVEE has, since inception, taken on activities that have left no one in doubt that there is, indeed, a new dawn for technical, vocational and entrepreneurship education in Nigeria. Obviously considering 15 percent of the highly skilled in the nation’s workforce as two low for any significant impact on national development, the President, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR, had, at inception, mandated relevant government agencies, including the OSSAP-TVEE, to scale up the highly skilled workforce to at least 50 percent in the first instance.
In line with that mandate, the SSAP-TVEE, soon after appointment, began an aggressive drive for partnerships, sponsorships and training institutions for the development of TVET, employing various strategies, including the use of agencies, to reach both local and international skills training experts. In the last quarter of 2023, to be precise, the SSAP-TVEE visited and received no less than ten training experts within and outside the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in search of quality trainers who would deliver the kind of training she envisages for Nigerians.
Aside the embassies such as Rwandan, Moroccan and Finnish embassies, among others, where she went to seek both training partnership and funding, the SSAP-TVEE engaged with local trainers, either by visiting their facilities or their coming to her office to discuss the prospects of partnership. Local trainers visited during the first quarter of year 2024 included Avti Farms, an agro-allied and tractor operation training facility in Kuje, Joint Heirs of Salvation, a Catering and Fashion Design institute also located in Kuje, Dine and Pack Cutlery Centre, a Catering institute located in Wuse, and Golden Finger Farms and Ranches Limited, an agro-allied organization with a wide range of farming varieties such as Poultry, Piggery, Fishery, Cattle and Horse ranches, and Vegetable nurseries. What stood out this particular organization, in the estimation of the SSAP-TVEE, was that it also runs an Institute where young farmers are trained and mentored to build, grow and sustain their own farms. It is sponsored by the Government of the Netherlands while Golden Finger Farms and Ranches Limited, in collaboration with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), are the implementers.
Obviously, in recognition of her prominent role in the Federal Government’s efforts to build a skilled workforce, the SSAP-TVEE was made a member of the National Council on Skills, reconstituted in March this year by Vice President Kashim Shettima, who is also the Chairman. In his remark at the inaugural ceremony at the Presidential Villa, the Vice President said her inclusion “underscores our commitment to addressing challenges head-on”. Anchoring on that advantage, the SSAP-TVEE also sort inter-Agency and inter-Ministerial partnerships with other relevant Federal agencies in order to advance the course of TVET.
In the first and second quarters of the year, for example, the TVEE boss partnered with several Ministries and Agencies of Government. They include, among others, the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), to fuel the training of five million youths annually under the Skill-Up Artisans (SUPA) programme, Ministry of Labour and Employment, to enhance skills and ensure gainful employment, and the Ministry of the Interior, to reach out to inmates of Correctional centres across the country in line with the Presidential mandate that “no Nigerian should be left behind” in the on-going socio-economic regeneration. In this respect, the OSSAP-TVEE partners with Bank of Industry (BoI) to ensure grants for inmates after their release. The Office also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment in respect of the government’s Labour Employment and Empowerment Programme (LEEP). The MoU was, among others, to enable the two bodies to work together to achieve the goals of LEEP.
The TVEE boss also explored training possibilities outside the FCT. In December last year, she visited some training facilities in Lagos. They include T-33 Academy which majors in live events production, the I-Academy which majors in software development, and Messrs. Yikodeen Factory, majoring in Leatherworks and Shoemaking. One significant outcome of the Lagos expedition was the offer of a one-month free training on leatherworks to 100 youths by the Managing Director of Yikodeen Factory, Mr. Tunde Shamsudeen Olayinka. That training was launched on Tuesday, January 16, 2024 in Ejigbo, Isolo Industrial Estate, Lagos, and ended with the employment of 50 of the graduands.
By the second quarter of the year, the partnership with the Ministry of the Interior started yielding results as the OSSAP-TVEE initiated the skills training of inmates of Correctional Centres across the country starting with the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Correctional Centre in Kuje and its female counterpart in Suleja. The overall plan is to prepare them for a life outside confinement so they don’t return to the Centres soon after release for lack of sustenance.
Another significant initiative of the OSSAP-TVEE in the year was the Solar Kiosk Project. The multi-purpose, home-grown project, is providing both skills training and job for the artisans who build the kiosks and are employed, thereafter, as maintenance engineers. It is designed for functions such as hairdressing and barbing, Catering and food-vending as well as other side businesses like, Point Of Sales (POS) business, phone charging etc.
There were other innovations, some quite novel to Nigeria, such as the UNLOCK initiative. It was the culmination of a six-week Campaign during which the youths were asked to record a 90-seconds video of their current skills, what their plans were to develop such skills and how they would like the government to assist them realize their plans. It began on April 3, 2024. At the end of the campaign, no less than 10,000 youths across the six geopolitical zones were shortlisted for a two-week intensive online and physical training on Business Plan writing. 120 participants, adjudged to have written the best Business Plans, were shortlisted and on June 8, 2024, at a grand Graduation/Award ceremony in Abuja, they were gifted N500,000 each while all the participants received Certificates of Participation certified by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE). Undoubtedly, it was the major event of the year, which attracted the attention of both the government and the private sector.
One of the significant follow-ups to that event was an award to the SSAP-TVEE in recognition of the programme. In their letter of invitation, signed by the Managing Director, Dr. (Amb.) Asogbon O., Messrs. Global Tech. World Professional Limited, Nigeria, stated, “In recognition of your outstanding achievements and commitment to the advancement of technology and support for Nigerian youth through the UNLOCK PROJECT, we are pleased to inform you that you have been selected to receive a special award at the ceremony”.
Other highlights during the year include the commencement of a national TVET empowerment programme for schools aimed at achieving the aforementioned paradigm shift in the nation’s Education System. On Wednesday, July 17, 2024, Government Science and Technical College, Garki, Abuja, in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), became the first beneficiaries when the OSSAP-TVEE donated 50 laptops and 50 industrial training course licenses worth over N80 million to 25 Artificial Intelligence and 25 Robotics Engineering students currently undergoing a six-month training in the aforementioned courses. The course licenses were donated by Messrs. De-Lorenzo International who also installed the laptops with the appropriate software to facilitate and enhance the training programme. Barely two months later, the Office again donated 50 laptops to 50 Junior Secondary School students of Government Secondary School, Tudun-Wada, in Abuja. The donation was made in partnership with Messrs. Afrifone Limited, a digital equipment manufacturing company in Nigeria.
As we round up the year 2024, there are numerous other pending programmes, which foundations have already been or are currently being laid. One of them, and perhaps the most outstanding, is the National Poverty Reduction and Growth Strategy (NPRGS). Also christened TVET Max of Special Skills Upscaling Programme (or Technical and Vocational Education Maximization), it is aimed at improving employability and earning capacity of Nigerian youths through upscaling their skills capacity. Ahead of the programme, the OSSA-TVEE has already held a workshop in Abuja on its implementation. The workshop featured a briefing by the SSAP-TVEE, and presentations by other stakeholders,
Given the perceived vision and momentum of her drive, there is little doubt that the OSSAP-TVEE will witness an added surge of activities in the New Year.
