TVET Remains A Veritable Pathway To Success – Minister

The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, has averred that Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET) remains a veritable pathway to success among students and undergraduates in the country.
Adamu stated this at a workshop with the theme, “ Developing A Proper Institutional Strategic Plans’ organised by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) in partnership with PaceSet Associates in Abuja.
Declaring the workshop open, Adamu noted with dismay the rising spate of unemployment in the country, maintaining that enrolling students into technical and vocational education courses remained the sure way of tracing the path of personal and national growth.
Represented by the Director, Tertiary Education, Federal Ministry of Education, Mrs Iiyasu Rakya, Adamu regretted that many young Nigerians after graduation remained either unemployed or underemployed with little or no skills to contribute to their economic development as well as the country, maintaining that the gap would be bridged by technical and vocational education.
Adamu said”, TVET institutions are responsible for implementing programmes that equip students with the relevant skills and competences to meet the needs of the labour market”.
“ In all, Nigeria has a total number of 171 technical colleges, 108 polytechnics, 61 monotechnics, 98 Vocational Enterprise Institutes(VEIs), and 150 Innovation Enterprise Institutions, equipping learners with technical and vocational skills through formal and non formal channels”, he said.
The minister however identified low perception among others as one of the biggest challenges facing the TVET and stressed the need for this challenge as well as others be addressed in order to reverse the trend thereby repositioning TVET for national growth.
Some students of the Government Crafts and Vocational Development centre, Port Harcourt, expressed joy over the impact of the school on them in this economic-crisis period, revealing that their acquired skills had given them a slight economic landing as against their counterparts in other schools.
They further called on the government to give attention to the needs of the centre in terms of materials, equipment and amenities for their total growth and development.

By: Lady Godknows Ogbulu