The United Nation Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation has trained 8, 650 staff in the nation's polytechnic sub-sector towards the realisation of the new curriculum it designed for the revitalisation of Technical and Vocational Educational development in the country.

UNESCO, in its bid to help the nation reinvigorate technical education, had partnered the National Board for Technical Education to review 57 curricula programmes being run in the nation's polytechnics.

UNESCO had embarked on the training to acquaint the polytechnic workers including lecturers with the contents of the new curricula.

The Executive Secretary, NBTE, who is also the National Coordinator of the Project, Dr. Nuru Yakubu, in a statement signed by the board's Head, Media and Publicity, Mr. Lawal Hafix, added that the training was part of the project's continuous staff development and capacity building activities.

He added that the number was exclusive of the training arrangement between one of the six Staff Development Centres and the National Teachers Institute under which some 488 teaching staff had been trained.

Yakubu revealed that under the phase one, the project successfully initiated the review of 57 curricula which had been made available to stakeholders in digital and hard copies, pointing out that the unique feature of the revised curricula was the incorporation of Information communications and Technology and entrepreneurial education.

He added that about 200 titles of relevant textbooks and publications were procured and distributed to each of the six SDCs of the project.

Yakubu who described the phase one of the project as successful, disclosed that the Federal Government had approved the second phase of the training which, he said, would lay emphasis on supporting the efforts of the Federal Ministry of Education in enhancing the TVE to meet the socio-economic needs of the country.

He added that the Phase II will support the enhancement of continuing TVE staff development system, improvement of the quality of content and linkages of non-formal with formal TVE to create employment opportunities for the unskilled and illiterate youth.

Yakubu also revealed that other activities for Phase II would include the review of curricula and the development of the newly established Vocational Enterprise Institutions and Innovation Enterprise Institutions; the setting up of additional six SDCs as well as training of core teams of trainers for the SDCs.

He disclosed that before the end of July, 70 polytechnic lecturers would undergo a week-long train-the- trainers training at the Yaba College of Technology, Lagos and Federal Polytechnic, Bauchi.

These ones, Yakubu said would be empowered through the training to train others who would be used in the implementation of the new curricula aimed at rejuvenating the nation's informal and formal sectors.

Before this new development, the NBTE had embarked on the National Vocational Qualification Framework to help revitalise the informal sector of the economy through the impartation of skills in a formal way to youths.

Nigerians had expressed worries at the rate at which many artisans including auto-mechanics, electricians and plumbers were losing their jobs due to inadequate skills to meet up with the challenges of the new technology.

Yakubu while briefing journalists during one of the advocacy tours had noted that most artisans' skills were becoming outdated and if nothing was done to help them, criminality could increase.

The NBTE boss who used the mechanics as an example said that most of them could not fix new cars because their technology was different from the ones they were used to.

"Some of these cars have sealed engines and brain boxes to control the electronic system and our mechanics do not have the skills to repair them.

Therefore they need new training and new skills in the formal and informal sector.

Yakubu said that that was the reason the board developed the NVQF.

According to him, vocational qualifications are qualifications that are skills and competency-based, that are aimed at certifying people for employment. They are targeted and sector specific. "The whole idea of the framework is that there will be a set of skills that will be offered by the various relevant sectors at various levels. The typical levels are levels one to five.

"Once an individual is able to demonstrate that he possesses the skills, as specified by the sector council for a particular level, regardless of how he acquires the skills, whether from a formal, non-formal or informal set up, he is issued a certificate.

"These levels are in progression from the first to the highest. This way, we will not only have a regulation for the skills that are acquired within our various sectors, but is should also be able to upgrade our work force, from one level to another."

Most stakeholders have expressed optimism that this new idea would not just improve the process of skills acquisition, but would reduce pressure of admission on the nation's university system.

Source: punchng.com