Janet Samuel, Abuja
Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), has inaugurated three ad-hoc committees leveraging on all available resources to upscale skills development in Nigeria, and also strengthen its intervention activities.
The Committees are; Operationalisation of Equipment Upgrade in Workshops and Laboratories for Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education Technical to be chaired by Prof. Hayward Babale
The second committee on Assessment/Review of TETFund Centres of Excellence is be headed by Prof. Oyewale Tomori.
While the third is committee on Operationalisation of Skills Development Special Intervention to be chaired by Professor Idris Bugaje.
Inaugurating the Committees, the Executive Secretary (ES), TETFund, Sonny Echono,, tasked them to assess the state of workshops and laboratories in target institutions including equipment and other facilities in use.
He noted that the modern economic development process continued to depend on increased productivity arising from purposeful and problem-solving research.
“it has been acknowledged that no society can succeed without adequate research infrastructure facilities to support innovative research for solving societal problems
The ES said the Fund under the 2024 Intervention made provision for the upgrade of the most performing Centres of Excellence.
He charged the Committees to ensure that various skills facilities were put to use for effective operations, adding that promotion of skills development was one of the priority area of government to address the prevailing challenges of youth unemployment, and tackling poverty level.
Echono praised the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) for its efforts to improve skill development in Nigerian polytechnics, formalising the informal apprenticeship training.
The ES urged the Committee to assess the present state of skills development programmes in Polytechnics based on the entrepreneurship and skills development policy of government.
In his remark, , the Chairman, Committee on operationalisation of skills development special intervention, Prof. Idris Bugaje, who responded on behalf of the other committees, commended the Fund for investing in skills development adding that this will shapen the skills of the youths.
He said the committees would discharge their duties with utmost sense of responsibility to yield the expected result
The committees are expected to submit their reports within six weeks from the day of inauguration.
