ITF has trained over  150,000 Nigerians in 21 months – DG Joseph Ari 

By Golok  Nanmwa ,Jos

Director General of the Industrial Training Fund ITF  Joseph Ari on Wednesday said, about 150,000 Nigerians have benefited from ITF’s training programmes since his assumption of office in September 2016. 

Ari made this known while speaking at an Accountability forum for public office holders hosted by correspondent chapel of the Plateau state chapter of the Nigerian Union of Journalist .

He said “On assumption of office in September 2016 , We introduced the  The ITF Reviewed Vision, Strategies for Mandate Actualization ,it  is a six-year plan that was conceived by the incumbent Management on assumption of office. It comprised of short term, medium and long term goals,  It commenced in late 2016 to terminate in 2022, It was designed to aggressively address service challenges, infrastructure deficits, revenue and a gamut of other strictures impinging the actualization of the Fund’s mandate., Two years into its implementation, the ITF trained over 60,000 Nigerians from 2,300 organisations.

Ari also said “, Over 50,000 youths and other vulnerable groups were equipped with skills for employability and entrepreneurship through programmes including the National Industrial Skills Development Programme, (NISDP), the Women Skills Empowerment Programme (WOSEP), Training on Wheels and the Technical Skills Development Project (TSDP), among several other initiatives.

The ITF also  implemented numerous technical skills acquisition programmes as well as introduced new initiatives including the National Industrial Skills Development Programme (NISDP), the Women Skills Empowerment Programme (WOSEP) and the Skills Development Programme for Youths in Construction Trade (CONSEP) among several others.

The NISDP, our flagship technical vocational skills acquisition programme, which was run twice in 2016, has trained about 30,000 youths drawn from the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) between late 2016 to date ,In the last phase of the programme, new ideas were introduced. Trade areas were streamlined to three, namely: Welding and Fabrication, Tailoring and Fashion Design and Plumbing and Pipe Fitting.

He also said ” Another tweak was unlike previous phases where the ITF depended on State Governments to provide start-up kits, the ITF provided start-up packs to all the 11,100 beneficiaries of the programme,/The WOSEP is another skills acquisition programme that was targeted at another vulnerable segment, in this case the women folk. Over 500 rural women drawn from 13 states and the FCT were trained across 32 centres.,11 trade areas were covered, namely: Event Management, Cosmetology, Poultry Farming, Bead Making, Baking and Pastry, Soap/Disinfectant/Detergent Making, Hair Making, Food Processing, Tailoring and Fashion Design, Tie and Dye and Electrical Installations.

Ari also said “In view of the breath and scope of our mandate, the ITF entered into collaborations with organisations both locally and internationally for training and technical assistance, The Fund established training linkages with external agencies like United Nation’s Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), the N-Power Knowledge, Niger Delta University (NDU), National Institute for Mining and Geosciences and Cement Technology Institute of Nigeria (CTIN) amongst others.”

“The Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme is a brain child of the ITF. It was initiated to provide students of engineering, technical and allied disciplines, with practical experience of the real work situations they were likely to find on graduation ,so far  The ITF has  disbursed a total of One Billion, Six Hundred and Twenty-Eight Million, Six Hundred and Twenty Thousand Naira (N1,628,620,000.00) as students and supervisory allowances to 328 tertiary institutions.”

“As part of efforts to improve the scheme, the ITF stepped up engagements with the supervising agencies and other stakeholders to address some of the problems bedeviling the scheme.” To this end, it convened the 13th SIWES Biennial Conference and the SIWES Stakeholders Meeting. All the events took place in Abuja and attracted the participation of all the Regulatory Agencies, the Federal Ministries of Education; Industry, Trade and Investment; Labour and Productivity and employers of labour.”

“Resolutions from these events are currently being implemented. We believe that when fully implemented, the numerous challenges that had blighted the scheme for some time will be resolved ”

“The ITF enabling Act provides that every Employer, having either five or more employees in its establishment, OR having less than five employees but with a turnover of fifty million naira (N50m) and above per annum, shall, in respect of each calendar year, or on the prescribed date, contribute to the Fund one percentum (1%) of its total annual payroll; All Employers who pay their annual Training Contribution have a duty to train indigenous staff and shall accept Students on Industrial Attachment,In keeping up to this statutory requirement therefore, the Fund paid a total of Six Billion, Four Hundred and Fifty-One Million, Three Hundred and Sixty-Five Thousand, Ninety-Two Naira, Fifty-Six Kobo (N6,451,365,092.56) as training reimbursement to Four Hundred and Thirty (430) companies that met all criteria for such reimbursement.

Joseph Ari also said ‘To address the infrastructure deficits in the Fund, the management embarked on the completion of Lagos Island, Katsina and Minna Area Offices. All the three Area Offices are at different levels of completion and will be commissioned soon, At the ITF staff School, Management renovated all existing structures, and constructed new classrooms and hostel blocks in order to accommodate more students, It also established a school farm for Agricultural science practicals, and provided and equipped workshops for Technical Science, Home Economics, Chemistry, Physics and Biology subjects. As a result of these developments, the school has now been accredited as a WAEC centre., The Fund disbursed a total of N199,800,000.00 to 289 staff as housing and car loans, The intention of the revolving loan scheme is to ensure that staff of the Fund own their own houses and have no transportation problems ,also  A total of 1,646 members of the Fund’s workforce were sponsored for capacity development ,1,517 were sponsored on short term staff development programmes, 58 were sponsored on professional membership in their various professional fields, 42 benefitted from long term staff development programmes, 23 enjoyed sponsorship of overseas training programmes and Six benefitted from internship programmes. The commitment of management is ensuring that all staff of the Fund are trained and for optimal productivity.

Management has established a Sickbay in the Headquarters. the Sickbay, which is domiciled in Business Training and Development Department (BTDD) is equipped and staffed to cater for the health needs of the workforce.

The Fund acquired over 2,000 slots on various media for the placement of its jingles and documentaries, most of these jingles are still running as I am speaking, It also entered into retainership agreements with 5 media outfits namely: Silverbird Communications, Plateau Radio Television Corporation (PRTVC), Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), Jay FM and Unity FM just as it sponsored a 30-minute programme “Training Mandate” on PRTVC, As part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), the Fund embarked on a number of corporate social responsibility projects which include  The construction and commissioning of two bore hole projects in Rantya and Hwolshe communities of Plateau State,

 The construction and installation of Automated Teller Machines (ATM) at the Headquarters in order to ease the cash transactions of the immediate communities, and the beautification of the roundabout at state lowcost in Rantya ,The Fund trained over 200 teachers to update their skills,

We have also  donated desks and ICT equipment to Government Technical College Bukuru and Government Science School Kuru, The Fund also commissioned a sick-bay at St. John Vianney Minor Seminary Barkin Ladi.

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ITF has trained over  150,000 Nigerians in 21 months – DG Joseph Ari