National Board for Technical Education on Monday called for replacement of Industrial Training Fund with National Skills Fund as a means of funding skills development in the country.
Executive Secretary of NBTE, Prof. Idris Bugaje, who made the call at a news conference in Kaduna, said this was part of the resolutions reached at the seventh Industry Stakeholders’ Consultation on Skills Development held recently.
Bugaje said that to avoid over taxation of industries, the stakeholders recommended that ITF be transformed into NSF to fund and support skills development.
He said the proposed NSF should not be a trainer or certificate awarding body.
According to him, the idea is to refocus ITF to fund skills development, that is, to provide funds for skills training and support training of national skills qualification verifiers and assessors.
“NSF, if established, will also support the development of national occupational standards and other relevant skill councils,” he said.
Bugaje added that the stakeholders also proposed an executive bill on NSQ framework to be sent to the National Assembly for passage.
He explained that the resolutions had become necessary, following the challenges affecting the vocational training sector in the country.
The NBTE boss identified some of the challenges as the weak linkages between industry and training institutions; loose coordination of the skills eco-system and low awareness on NSQ.
“There is also the problem of non-inclusion of NSQ in the national scheme of service, non-legislation of the framework, engagement of non-certified professionals by employers and lack of special funding scheme for skills development.
“Other problems include non-competitiveness of Nigerian artisans, lack of skilled and certified artisans for employment, non-availability of national skills policy and lack of labour market information,” he said.
