The Executive Secretary, National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Prof. Idris Bugaje, has disclosed that the federal government will kick off the new skill acquisition initiative, Technical and Vocational Education Programme (TVET), with one million trainees.

He said the programme, which has received 1.5 million applications, will commence in July for Master’s six and 12, while the technical college component will start in September.

Bugaje, who stated this at the Education Writers’ Association of Nigeria (EWAN) Dialogue series with the topic: ‘Interrogating Nigeria’s new technical and vocational education programme’ (TVET), said the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has earmarked N100 billion for the pilot programme nationwide.

Besides, he disclosed that there is an arrangement with the Bank of Industry (BOI) to fund outstanding proposals by graduates after completion of their training.

Speaking at the virtual dialogue series, Bugaje said the initiative is meant to give young people the opportunity to learn skills that can help them meet the demand of Nigeria and even get jobs outside the country.

Noting that Nigeria, with only 129 technical colleges against over 15,000 senior schools, faces a severe challenge bridging its technical gaps, Bugaje said that with the new initiative, there is hope that more enrollments will follow, more admissions will be offered, and more young people will go to technical colleges for training.

Bugaje stated that the colleges, hitherto known as federal science and technical colleges, with science students making up 90 per cent of the population, have been rebranded and will now be purely federal technical colleges with intake of only technical components.

Stating that the federal government will also pick one technical college from every state of the federation for the pilot programme, he said: “Out of the 129 colleges in Nigeria, 74, representing more than half, are going to be run as pilots. Our hope is that by the time technical colleges are rejuvenated, there will be an increase in admissions, parents will demand for more, and states will probably start converting conventional secondary schools into technical colleges.

“Technical colleges are meant to feed polytechnics. It is because of the absence of products of technical colleges that polytechnics are taking inputs from senior secondary schools, people who have no technical background at all. But that’s how it has been for several decades. In the 60s and early 70s, technical colleges were really feeding the polytechnic system. But now that situation shall be recreated through this intervention.”