An appeal has gone to the Cross River State Governor, Senator Liyel Imoke, to intervene in resolving all bottlenecks hindering the development and movement of the Federal Training Centre, Calabar to its permanent site at Odukpani in Odukpani Local Government Area.
The appeal was made by the Provost of the Federal Training Centre, Calabar, Mrs. Veta Majoroh on the occasion of the 2013 students week celebration held at Federal Training Centre ground along Ndidem Usang Iso Road, Calabar.
Mrs. Majoroh disclosed that the Federal Training Centre, Calabar is one of the six Federal Training Centres in the country located in each of the six geo-political zones of the country with that of the South-West located at Lagos, South-East, at Enugu and South-South, in Calabar, Cross River State.
Others according to the Provost, are those of North Central Zone situated at Ilorin, North-West, at Kaduna, while that of North-East, is located at Maiduguri.
The initial mandate of the Federal Training Centre, according to the Provost, was to cater for the training needs of the Junior and Middle level manpower needs of the service, mainly in Secretarial practices, legislative reporting and clerical duties.
She stated further that the goals, objectives and programmes of the Centre, have been redefined to conform with the current reform and transformation objectives of the Federal Government.
The present Federal Training Centre she explained, have the mandate to train and address the skill gap of officers from grade level 06 – 09 with the aim of improving their competencies thereby helping them to build a challenging, rewarding and mobile career, spanning across the public and private sectors of the economy.
On courses offered at the Centre, the Provost explained that the Centre offers Higher and National Diploma in Office Technology and Management, Higher and National Diploma in Public Administration, Diploma in Computer Science, Diploma in Business Administration, as well as Certificate in Supervisory General Management.
Admission, she explained, was not restricted to federal establishments alone but to all States and Local Government Areas, lamenting however, that the host State had not taken advantage of the training programmes at the centre, which according to her, only the States of Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Rivers, Edo and Delta have been using the centre to train and retrain their officers to enhance the performance and efficiency of their duties.
She appealed for greater interest and concern for the progress, development, survival and administration of the centre as a Federal Institution for the South-South located in the State.
In her speech, the Head of Service, Ntunkae (Mrs.) Mary-Theresa Ikwen, mni, commended the authorities of the Federal Training Centre for its contributions towards the training of the needed Human Capacity especially in the lower and middle cadre for the public and private sectors of the economy.
Ntunkae Ikwen, lauded the students for celebrating its week and urged them to exhibit the needed quality expected of them as students of the training centre.
On the request for intervention in the protracted bottleneck working against the movement of the centre to its permanent site at Odukpani, the Head of Service called for patience and assured them of contacting the necessary authorities to address the issue.