'Why We're Setting Up New Skills Centres'
Professor Olu Akerejola,Director General of the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) based in Jos, was recently re-appointed by President Olusegun Obasanjo for a second term in office. In this interview with Cletus Akwaya, Akerejola speaks on the new skills acquisition centres being established by ITF, poverty alleviation and job creation activities of ITF, its training programmes across the country as well as the achievements, problems and plans of the Fund under his leadership. Excerpts.
The ITF is developing a skills acquisition centre in Lagos, we want to find out the details of this project, what it entails and the objectives?
The skills acquisition centre in Lagos has always been there in various vocations, in mechanical area, electricals and several other vocations but we decided that because we have to cover all the strata of work and vocation in the country, the Governing Council approved for us to start a skills acquisition center directed to telecommunications and electronics in Ikeja.
What Kind of telecommunications training this centre is going to be given?
Its mainly in electronics because a lot of businesses in the country and even the world is governed by infotechnology And in infotech, you are talking about electronics and in electronics you are talking about what are the materials used, what are the rudiments, the fundamentals involved in electronics, telecommunications and various forms of it. Because telecommunications has transited from the 19th Century wire telecommunication to the 20th Century wireless and now in the 21st century we are talking about the satellite and only God knows how far it will go, so we have to catch with the pace and help the industry.
What is the capacity of this Centre and how much is it costing ITF to build ?
The students intake is being worked out but we do have a hall in one of the workshops that can take at least 40 students at a time because we have all the computer gadgets, all the computer materials that can take 40 students at one point with each student on his own computer set, work tools and work equipment at each of the stations. Cost, it is being done over the time. We have been in it now for three years so I cannot give the total cost at this point in time.
But I know we spent nothing less than N50 million on the acquisition and development of the workshop. In fact, beyond that because all the workshops in the place are being renovated and being brought up to the modern level.
Are you thinking of establishing more skills centres in other parts of the country?
Yes, we are currently establishing on regional basis. ITF, Because its national, taking care of the organised private sector that is scattered all over the country, its looking at regionalizing skills with relations to the preferred businesses and vocations in those regions. For example in Kano, we are moving the agricultural skills equipment and training from Lagos where it was to Kano because obviously Kano is one of biggest centers in agricultural production. We have the Kadawa basin, we have the Hadejia /Jama'are basin, so naturally we feel we should move agricultural training into Kano. We also have mechantronics.
Mechantronics is a new development in the industry of mechanics. Currently Most of motors in industry are electronically controlled and so we are developing the mechantronics workshop also in Kano .In future, we think that an area like Lokoja which has the steel industry which cuts across, because You will recall that Ajaokuta was located because it was contiguous with Onitsha. In the days when they trying to find out to locate the iron and steel industry , so for that region, that belt we are not going strictly by political zoning we are going by what vocations are present in those areas and we hope that in future mining and such related vocations skills will be located in a place like and we are building a workshop to that effect.
One problem ITF has always had with employers has been this issue of reimbursement of training expenses, ho has the Fund under your leadership addressed this problem?
Yes, we have realized this. One of the first things we did was to talk to the organized private sector to teach them how they can fill their forms and how they can request for reimbursement. Because it is money you have to account for every Kobo, you cannot dole out money without all the due processes being followed.
The first thing we did was dialogue with the organized private sector. We solicited the National Employers Consultative Association (NECA) to help us talk to the organised private sector. The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) too is involved and we went through and did a forum in which we brought in those involved in reimbursement , that was in the beginning and things started improving.
Secondly, from their own perspective, they thought that some of our forms were cumbersome in filling and so we have revised the forms to make it easier and also check on the list, the various itemization and that in itself has helped. And them we sent outv information in terms of reimbursement . What is required of you, what should you do ahead of us , what do expect of us and so that has tremendously helped in our reimbursement schemes.
How about the statutory collections from the private sector operators?
The collection is going as it is. We do have problem. Naturally nobody wants to part with money. But the first we do is to ensure that we try to tell you that we are doing is in the national interest and that we are doing is in your interest apart from being in the national interest . And we go all the way to let you know that we are ordinary tax collectors, we are coming to levy you but we are operating within the ambit of the law. A lot of them are responding and the response itself is because of the education we have given they have seen that they can get their reimbursement almost at the asking as long as they follow the due process.
What was the level of collection in the out gone year and what is your projection for 2004?
Level of collection has dropped because the economy itself has dropped. The collection is a factor of the number of employees are in an organisation and is also a factor of how many companies, industries and commercial organizations that are there and because the economy dropped it dropped at a point. But we are glad that it is beginning to pick up because a lot more investments have come into the country and a lot more people are geared towards improving the economy and we are happy.
What is the Fund doing to compliment Govern-ment's policy of fighting youth unemployment?
Tremendously because we are one of the few Federal Government skills establishment organization .In fact we are the prime skills establishment parastatal in the country. We flow along with government in its aspirations along with what we are established for.
We participated in the National Poverty Eradication Programme, we are at the train the trainers programme started in the programme , we took 80 per cent of train the trainers programme through out the country.
Currently there is the NEEDS and we are joined in the aspirations of the country in NEEDS. We have sent people to participate in the seminars that they were holding we also have a national conference coming up in which we address the problem of poverty alleviation.
One of the programmes of ITF which has become very popular with students is SIWES but it appears ITF is having problems because of the size, how do you hope to reform this programme?
The programme is not too big for the Fund to manage if anything we have the infrastructure to be able to manage it. Indeed the Act as conceived by the Federal Government, the Fund is subsidizing this programme through our own resources. Because it is of importance we have inputs from all tertiary institutions and stakeholders and there are various reform programmes we putting forward and which we are considering the possibility of the Fund paying directly to the students. Presently all funds are paid to the students through their tertiary institutions. The number of students involved are only 86 ,000 students for this current year. No matter the size, we have the structures to be able to cope with the SIWES programme.
How much is the fund committing to the allowances?
The Federal Government pays each student N2,500 per month of participation. The reform that we are bringing in which tertiary institutions have accepted is that there should be six months one stretch .
Currently, there are two months one stretch in three portions . When this six months stretch comes into place, it becomes a lot easier because the student will be receiving his allowances as at when due, half before he goes, half after has completed the project. The commitment is there in terms of the Ministry is fully backing it and so know that the programme has been there for a long time . And even the developed countries are still doing students industrial work experience.
Does the Fund have machinery to carry post-graduation monitoring and evaluation to know how well participants are utilizing the skills supposedly acquired so as to readjust the programme on stream?
We do not go into post-graduate evaluation because the SIWES programme is pre-graduation either at the OND or HND. That is one of the things we are spending a lot of time and effort to clear that those who are on industrial attachment post-graduation are not our responsibility they Are the responsibility of parents and parents should please understand that we are not held liable.
To what extent has the management under your leadership gone to update the capacities of your staff for higher productivity?
A. I think since coming into the organisation the thing that will probably be a landmark in my organization in the last five years is internet accessibility. We have trained everyone from Director to the Secretaries and the middle manpower of the organisation to be computer literate. As a matter of fact, if you go through the offices most staff have computer and they are accessing the computer. It's a continuous process and we are going to continue. As they become literate, they ask for more soft ware and more hardware and we provide for it. We are completely modernised in terms of computer literacy , in terms of internet access. We have an active website for ITF which any one can go to.
You have just come from the internationalconference of International Federa-tion of Training and Development Institutions (IFTDO), what was the outcome of the conference and in what ways can Nigeria benefit from it?
Tremendously. I am on the board of directors IFTDO, This is an organization that is the umbrella for all training and development institutions in the World. Currently
The target is on road safety field, there are funds that are going to be made available by world bodies like the UN which they are going to commit the sums in millions of dollars. Nigeria being a member of the organisation is going to access this fund and you can agree with me that road accident is one of the major killers in the country and if through this IFTDO we are going to access funds from the UN it will help our Federal Road Commission tremendously.
What have been the challenges of running ITF?
The challenges are like running any other organization, there are human factors you have to cater for because naturally, everybody wants his welfare first so you have to try to take care of that you can never satisfy it but you are ever at it. Them of course, everybody will tell you financial constraints because we are self financing in terms of what we are able to collect from the organized private sector that is what we develop .We have redouble our efforts and making them understand that these collections are not for us but for the organisations.
And finally of course there are regulations that are coming here and there either from the parliament regulatory arms. Sometimes of course, they hinder on the parastatals but you can make an excuse to say that you an exception you have to abide by it. Some of these regulations are not specific nevertheless you have to abide by them.
|
