National Board For Technical Education To Push For Establishment Of More Vocational Institutes

The National Board for Technical Education says it would push for the establishment of more vocational institutes to produce the skilled manpower needed to drive the nation’s economy.

The Executive Secretary of the board, Prof. Idris Bugaje, stated this in an interview in Kaduna.

Bugaje, who was recently appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari,  explained that the country’s polytechnics have all along been providing technical education and very little of vocational training which is where the actual employability of Nigerians lie.

The Executive Secretary revealed his intension to establish Zonal Offices across the geo-political zones so that they will do advocacy to industries and the state governments in their zones, so that young people can be enrolled into vocational training.

He said for every university, there should be five polytechnics and for every polytechnic, there needs to be vocational training centres in equal or more than that number.

The NBTE executive secretary said the vocational sector has not been properly handled whilst most of the technical education curriculum has not been reviewed for over 20 years.

He assured that the NBTE would do a lot of advocacies for people to understand the value of technical and vocational education and bring all relevant stakeholders, particularly the industries on board.

Bugaje said that although the Federal Government had in 2017 approved the National Skills Qualification Framework, its implementation has not been well articulated.

He said within the next one year, the NBTE would develop vocational track across polytechnics and new institutions that will be established, so that Nigerians can be properly provided skills training.

He added that there is need to change training, curriculum and National Occupational Standard to fit with the new development.

Bugaje also pledged to find a way to boost the morale of NBTE staff through training and ensure interaction more closely with polytechnics to enhance the board’s regulatory functions.

On the ongoing strike by polytechnics lecturers, Bugaje said he would engage the National Executives of Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) in a bid to find lasting solutions to incessant strikes in polytechnics.