The Federal Government has restated its commitment to fully implementing  workable  policies and programmes  to  provide required skills and competencies for the development of  the industrial sector.
The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Okechukwu Enelama re-affirmed government’s commitment at the just conduced 23rd Nigeria Economic Summit in Abuja.
Enelama ,who was one of the  discussants on the topic;  “Skills, Competences and Capacity That The Industries Need to Move Forward’’, said  government was  also  ready to  solve the issues  of unemployment through  the development  of right skills and competencies.
“I agree with you, government is ready to solve the issues of unemployment and improve the productivity of the people, this problem is too important to just talk about it, government is ready.
“If we are not ready, you must insist that we are ready, we don’t actually have a choice, we have a responsibility to the people.’’
He said that real challenge was the issue of partnership with the relevant organisations required to help bridge the skills gap in  the industrial sector.
“I think the real challenge is the challenge of partnership, its the challenge of collaboration, it is the challenge of putting together in a way that we get result, is the challenge of humility to some degree.
“Because, even if we consider an idea, let us get on with it and see if it works, because  I am totally ready to try all ideas that are  productive  and progressive because the  problem we are dealing with is extremely important to solve.’’
He said that government was focusing on creating the enabling environment  for businesses to thrive, adding that there was the need to fight corruption.
“One of the major things to stop is corruption, because it is what makes the economy not work, and the other thing is to create stability, which is the whole key for business to thrive and for our people to do well.
“We have taken that view as a ministry to focus on creating enabling environment, and the government has prioritised that by creating an executive order for business to thrive.
“That is our number one priority, while we have launched it, we are challenging the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and the private sector to enable it work.’’
The minister said that government had also launched an industrial council designed to ensure that MDAs and the private sector work together to deal with the most stubborn problems hindering industrial growth in the country.
He said that members of the industrial council were also working on how best to develop infrastructure and policies for skills development.
Other mandate of the council according to him was to also evolve workable measures of deepening internal and external trade and finance.
Mr Rotimi Balogun of the General Electric said it was absolutely necessary to develop technical, vocational and critical thinking skills to solve complex problem in the country.
“If we are graduating engineers, the kind of skills they come out with is quite different from the skills needed in the future.
”The kind of skills they need is digital skills that will make them get employment to companies like General Electric.
”In terms of entrepreneurial skills, It is important that we create the type of skills that will ensure a local supply chain in the industrial sector.
He said it was very necessary to also have standardised curriculum in our educational sector.
“It is important to also teach people  not just how you can use money to start business, but  you can teach business through stimulation,  virtual process, how you can train people through online platforms to make sure that you improve their entrepreneurial skills.’’
The Chief Executive Officer of Siemens Nigeria, Mrs Onyeche Tifase said it was necessary to collaborate with other technological driven nations to develop the right skills required for industrialisation.
“What is key is collaboration, how the British and the Chinese got to where they are, it is through collaboration.
”The bold skill everyone has to have is digital awareness, irrespective of your profession and it is important all government agencies become digitised.
“”If you are engaging with a private counterpart and he is already digitised and you are not, it is very difficult to collaborate.’’
She said that Siemens had begun training for school children to equip them with skills required for technological advancement.
”The training entailed teaching the children how to create solution from very simple tools and devices to create  answers  for technology across health care environment and power sectors.
”So you see, where a small child is creating a  turbine from a very simple battery and understanding how mechanical energy works., this is what we want to see roll over the country.
”Beyond secondary level, we are also looking at vocational training programmes that have to do with heory and practical and that are how we can cause reduction in unemployment.
”For us to create more of those skills, we need to have industries that will absolve these skills, so that the trainees can innovate and replicate the skills.
”We have a training centre where we are training about 14,000 graduates every year and the programme runs for three and half years.
”The training involves the skills of the future,  like coding,  digitisation, machine to machine learning and  the students they have projects where they  have built their own device,’’ she said.

She advised government at all levels to develop infrastructure more and  industrialise to encourage the inflow of skills development  into country.