The Nigerian government launched a new Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) initiative on 30 May, aimed at addressing the country’s rising youth unemployment and underemployment rates. Speaking at the monthly dialogue organised by the Education Writers’ Association of Nigeria (EWAN), the Executive Secretary of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Idris Bugaje, a professor, provided an in-depth explanation of the initiative and responded to questions from participants. Excerpt.
What is new about Nigeria’s new TVET initiative?
Bugaje: It’s good to interrogate government policies to ensure sustainability. Anytime you hear renewed hope, my understanding is that hopes were dashed in the past. That’s why the government is trying to renew those hopes.
The new Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) initiative of the Federal Ministry of Education is one major pillar of this government. You know, when the government came in, it was made the fourth pillar, but I must confess that for many years, TVET has not received attention like it is receiving now. The current initiative is meant to give opportunities to young people to learn skills that can help them meet the demands of industries in Nigeria (construction, transportation etc.), as well as skills that will help them get jobs outside the borders of Nigeria.
Part of it is also to rejuvenate the technical colleges. As you are aware, we have only 129 technical colleges (federal, state and private) as against the over 15,000 senior secondary schools. The proportion is decimally low, less than 1 per cent. So, for that reason, TVET has been very poorly attended to. Now, with this initiative, there is hope that more enrolment will follow, more admissions will be offered, and more young people will opt to go to technical colleges for training. Now, the Federal Colleges, which are 38 in number, have been rebranded. In the past, they used to be Federal Science and Technical Colleges, and when you go to those colleges, you would find 90 per cent of the students in science and only 10 per cent taking technical courses. So, the government said, ‘No, let’s revert to what it was, let it be Federal Technical Colleges. Those who are already in the system will be allowed to graduate, but from this year, there should be no more intake of the science component, only the technical component, and the 38 colleges will all run technical programmes, examined by the National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB).
What are these components of TVET?
Bugaje: One component is the technical colleges that the government has rebranded into TVET 1, TVET 2 and TVET 3, equivalent to SS1, SS2 and SS3. They are going to give a stipend, free accommodation, free feeding to the students, and pay for their attachments to the industry because skills training cannot be done in classrooms and workshops alone; you must go and practice in real-life situation. So that is one component.
Aside from the 38 federal colleges, we are also picking one technical college from every state, so we are going to have 36, giving a total of 74. So, these are the pilots out of the 129. We hope that by the time technical courses are rejuvenated, there will be an increase in admissions, parents will demand more and probably, states will start converting conventional secondary schools into technical colleges.
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Technical colleges are meant to feed polytechnics; it is the absence of products of technical colleges that polytechnics are taking inputs from senior secondary schools. In the 60s and early 70s, technical colleges were really feeding the polytechnics. So now, that situation shall be recreated by God’s grace through this intervention. That is one component.
The second component is what is called Master 6, a six-month training to be offered in skills centres accredited by NBTE, and we have almost 800 of them that have already been accredited, and the numbers are increasing, but our target is at least 1,000 in the coming few weeks. So, those skills training centres shall be assigned as where young people will be training, and those who have uploaded their data will now be assigned to some of those training centres. Six-month training for one level of skill, one will choose their skill, and if the centre is offering that skill set, they will be assigned by the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) to go to that training centre.
The period is six months, they will be paid monthly stipend; earlier it was N45,000, but now reduced to N22,500; tuition fee would be paid up to a maximum amount that hasn’t been decided, but probably around N150,000 to N180,000 for the six months, and they will also be paid for certification. This is because in skills training, you don’t allow the institution to issue the certificate. A third party who comes from a professional body has to assess. For instance, the Nigerian Institute of Builders (NIB) will have to assess the quality of skills exhibited by those trainees. Then, they can award certificates, and then, payment for the industrial attachments will also be paid, and that is for Master’s 6.
What are the specific requirements for the Master’s 6 component?
Bugaje: You don’t even need to have any qualification to go for Master’s 6. Even if you don’t know A, B, C, D; even if it is the Arabic alphabet that you know, or whether you are an almajiri or an out-of-school child, or you are a young child and don’t know anything, you can go and register, you can upload your information, the only requirement is your National Identification Number (NIN). Once you have NIN, you can be assigned to any of those skills training centres, and then you get assigned to your choice. So, the NIN capture will bring them not only for this training, but they can enjoy GSM and banking services as this programme helps improve and bring more people to the services.
What about the Master’s 12 component?
Then for Master’s 12, it is limited to vocational enterprise institutions. Most of them are private sector vocational institutions accredited by NBTE, and we have about 84 of them across the country. Of course, not all of them are fully accredited, but those that are fully accredited are also entitled to take students for 12 months. The only thing is, those who can be admitted into vocational enterprise institutions are normally around the age of 15. So, they have to be young people, adolescents, not just anybody of any age. For skills training centres, the one I mentioned under Master’s 6, even if you are 40, 50 and 60 years old, you can go and enroll. But for Master’s 12, you have to be an adolescent under age 15, and then you also have a NIN. So, these are the requirements.
When will these programmes kick off?
Bugaje: We are very hopeful that the technical college component will take off in September. The Master’s 6 and 12 will take off in July, by the grace of God. So, this TVET is really being recreated, and we are going to see a lot of improvement in skilled labour.
At the moment we import from francophone countries in West Africa. They are the ones doing the tiling, the finishing, the Plaster of Paris (POP) and a lot of other services at construction sites across Nigeria. If you go to Maiduguri, people from Chad Republic are crossing over to provide those services. TVET is better in the francophone countries than in the anglophone countries over the years. We were at almost the same level at Independence, but they are now doing much better than us. That narrative is going to change.
So, that is some of the things that we are going to see at the end of this exercise. We will also stop importing labour for different infrastructural projects. Look at the expansion of the railway, gas pipeline, the Dangote refinery, the onshore and offshore services in the oil and gas sector, all of them are being offered by Asians across Nigeria. No other country will allow this kind of scenario, but now the government has realised and we are now trying to correct that through this intervention. It will really give a lot of hope to the young people, and hopefully, the economy of Nigeria will improve.
What happens when there is no accredited vocational enterprise institution within an applicant’s state?
Bugaje: Well, a VEI must be accredited. Unaccredited VEIs shall not be beneficiaries. So, what you do is, make your choice, and if you have difficulty or there is no VEI in your vicinity, I will recommend that you go for the skills training centres, because VEIS will give you of course, a longer training, (Master’s 12), but it can only be offered by accredited VEIs. Out of 84 VEIs across the country, maybe just half of them might have been accredited. So, for that reason, I will recommend that people go for the STCs, unless if you know a VEI in your environment, a place you can easily walk to or drive to without difficulty. So, only accredited VEIs are allowed to participate in this intervention.
When is the application portal closing, and what are the requirements for submission?
Bugaje: The portal is not closed yet; it will probably close by early July. For an application to be successfully submitted, the applicant’s NIN and BVN must match; otherwise, it will be rejected.
Do you think the reasons you advanced are good enough to discourage Nigerians’ craze for university education?
Bugaje: For every engineer on a project, you require five technicians and technologists combined on average and for every technologist, you require another five artisans and craftsmen. It is a pyramid. If you go to a building or road construction site, it is only one person who designs it, but while building, it will require about 50 people. Today, we produce more engineers than craftsmen, and we have more universities than polytechnics. To add more salt to our injury, they are converting polytechnics to universities, making the system collapse. In 2017, about 600 conventional universities in China were converted to polytechnics because China knows the value of skills. The Chinese economy needs skilled hands as the pyramid is supposed to be maintained, but in Nigeria, the pyramid is upside down, so we hope this intervention changes the narrative.
How will the government ensure the sustainability of this initiative?
Bugaje: At the moment, the Honourable Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, is sourcing funds from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) for NELFUND to manage the payments. But this is only a temporary arrangement. The long-term solution is an executive bill that is being prepared to establish the National Skills Fund (NSF). The NSF will fund the new TVET initiative, and it will also fund all other skills development initiatives across the different Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and different sectors of the economy. This will be a very sustainable way of funding this programme, so that beyond the tenure of this government, we will be able to continue this trajectory, which is a renewal of hope for the young people.
Kindly explain the modalities for accessing the short, medium, and long-term plans under this initiative.
Bugaje: The programme will be monitored physically and electronically. As I said earlier, TETFUND will give NELFUND N100 billion for this programme. The role of TETFUND is only for the first year; it is only a takeoff fund but in subsequent years, NSF is going to be the funding agency for this intervention. Although they will have other things they fund. Ideally, the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) should have been converted to the Skills Training Fund as it has been going around doing things that are not of its objectives of training students by the universities, polytechnics and colleges of education, and has abandoned its mandate. But these people (ITF Management) are well entrenched, so, the National Council on Skills has decided that instead of upgrading or converting ITF to Skills Training Fund, it is better to just create it afresh so that funding can come from ITF, TETFUND, NASENI, among others. It will now be used to support other interventions.
Nigeria must strive to make skills an important currency of its economy. Countries are leveraging on skills to earn foreign exchange. Bangladesh has 11.5 million workers in the Middle East; India has over 50 million workers across the world. Many Nigerians can do the same. We have the most youthful population in the world. Sixty-five per cent of Nigerians are young people below the age of 25. So, the national skill fund is going to drive that agenda. Not only this, but other skills interventions to upskill Nigerian youth so that they can find jobs locally and globally.
How can rural dwellers without access to the internet access TVET?
Bugaje: They can only benefit by getting access to the internet and registering. But the training must be physical; it cannot be online. So, rural dwellers should try to check with their local government headquarters to see if there’s any nearby skills training centre that they can be automatically posted to as soon as they are registered. The first thing to do is to get registered, then the software is going to post them to a skills training centre that is close to them. For rural areas that do not have access to internet or networks, I believe in due course, we will have them trained but the over N100 billion fund available now cannot cater for every young Nigerian, so we are starting with one million or two million, and will gradually expand to the rural areas. Even in the urban areas, the number of applications received was close to 1.5 million. About three to four days ago, we had about 1.5 million, and we are taking 500,000 out of them to roll out the programme, observe how it operates within one year and then bring in improvements in the modus operandi, expand the scope so that at least another one million or 1.5 million can be covered. It is better than rushing and taking a larger number at a time.
Are ICT skills also integrated into the TVET programme?
Bugaje: Surely, there are at least four ICT courses out of 25, including hardware repairs, maintenance and programming, cloud computing, from which a candidate can choose. Once you start uploading, it will give you the options, and you can make a choice among the courses offered.
How can students access benefits?
Bugaje: Surely, stipends are going to be given once you start the training, and it will be paid monthly into your account; that is why your BVN is very important. So, your NIN has to match with your BVN to be sure it is you and not anybody else, that is how it is, it’s going to be monthly. There’s going to be a thumbprint every time you go to the centre for the training; that thumbprint will be transmitted to NELFUND automatically. So, if you do not attend the required minimum number of days, for that month you may not see your stipend.
So, one has to be regular in attending the programmes to get the payment of those stipends. Within the coming week, all the STCs that have been accredited shall have thumbprint systems installed to help indicate the name of each student, resumption time to the centre for training. All these will be used at the end of the day to pay the stipend.
How does the programme aim to track job outcomes such as job placement, entrepreneurship success or continued education for its beneficiaries?
Bugaje: Finance is the lifeline of any programme. The bill will be an executive bill and, once approved, it will go to the Federal Executive Council (FEC). From there, it will move to the National Assembly. We believe that any bill sent by the President of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu, will see the light of day and will automatically be assented to. However, if the bill does not scale through the National Assembly, the Minister of Education is very passionate about it, and I am certain he will find another means to get it approved. I remain very optimistic that the bill will pass.
There is monitoring and evaluation, and we are using technology for that; we are not just relying on sending Nigerians out, many programmes in Nigeria have failed due to the so-called Nigerian factor.
This initiative is going to be driven by technology and will be digitally driven. The statistics will be available, and monitoring at all levels will be carried out, not only at the NBTE but the Ministry of Education and all other stakeholders. NELFUND is also going to participate, and it is a sustainable program. Funding is going to be sourced, and with that, I believe we are going to achieve our results.
What specific mechanisms are in place to ensure that products of TVET are not just trained but are employed in the labour market?
Bugaje: On the employability issue, there is a plan to bring in starter pack but because of the experience we had with it in the past, we are planning to give the starter packs at the beginning of the training so that they can use them throughout the six-months or one-year training duration and by the time they finish their training, they will be motivated to use their starter packs. Otherwise, if you give starter packs at the end of training, the learners will take and sell them to people who are ready to buy.
For those who have very good entrepreneurial skills and can come up with very good proposals, there is an arrangement with the Bank of Industry (BoI) to fund those outstanding individuals, because in any group of trainees, you can notice one or two who have a sharp idea. So, BoI has been invited to partner in this programme so they can be able to fund those trainees.
How do we bridge the communication gap and make this message get to the youth and the appropriate quarters?
Bugaje: We need to sensitise the youth and empower them with skills, otherwise, the country will crash one day. If the youth are disgruntled without skills, they can go into crime. So, we need to skill them up, we must remove the barriers of skill being seen as meant for only those who cannot read or the lowlife people. Skills today pay better than a white collar job. An example is a professor in the UK who earns only 5,000 pounds in a month while a master plumber in the UK has nothing less than 15,000 pounds; three times more than what the professor earns. The Dangote truck driver earns a N1 million salary, while a professor earns only N600,000 a month.
So, skill is even better; we are only deceiving ourselves by refusing to see the reality. Globally, everyone has realised the value of skills; it is only in Nigeria that we look down on skills. There is a need for a mass campaign where the Education EWAN has to come in and other stakeholders. Unfortunately, NBTE is one of the most poorly funded agencies in the country. It is only now that the education ministry is involving it in the programme, and I hope there will be improvement in our funding, so that other institutions and the people coming up will understand the value of skills and they will pursue it as a career in their lives.