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.
By YINKA KOLAWOLE
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