By Tochukwu Bliss, Abuja
The Industrial Training Fund (ITF) says it has begun the process of onboarding the next batch of artisan/trainees for the second phase of its Skill Up Artisans Programme (SUPA).
A statement by the Director-General, ITF, Oluwatoyin Ogun, in Abuja yesterday, said the onboarding is sequel to the successful completion of the pilot phase of the programme which was the SUPA foundation.
Mr Ogun said: “Since its 54 years of existence, the SUPA programme of the ITF has been an impactful intervention to address the problem of availability of skilled manpower to Nigerian Industries.
“SUPA aims to aggregate existing and intending artisans in Nigeria by leveraging technology, ascertain their skills level, and implement training to up-skill these artisans.
“It is also aimed at exposing the artisans to international certification examinations and ensuring they are connected to the real economy either through direct employment or placement in foreign jobs.”
According to him, the ITF is tasked with implementing the programmed, drawing on its vast institutional and infrastructural capabilities and spared no effort in delivering on the task.
He added that SUPA is designed for implementation in three phases of the foundation, including SUPA One and Two.
He continued: “The foundation programme is the introductory phase of the training, SUPA One training focuses on the acquisition of three soft skills.
“SUPA focuses on technical and entrepreneurship, training artisans with exposure to certification examinations by International Awarding Bodies.
“To graduate 29,000 artisans in the foundation phase of 2024, ITF created a registration platform which is, www.supa.itf.gov.ng.
“The ITF also conducted a screening in each of the 90 senatorial districts in the country to validate the registered artisans.
“The office assessed and enlisted qualified training centres and monitored training of artisans placed in those centres.
“The artisans who participated in the programme and the training centres were duly paid stipends promised by the ITF.”
The D-G also informed that as ITF commenced the next phase of the training, certain innovative steps were initiated to enhance the process of onboarding the trainees.
SUPA aims to aggregate existing and intending artisans in Nigeria by leveraging technology, ascertain their skills level, and implement training to up-skill these artisans.
Ease of payment
Mr Ogun said the Fund is also working hard to improve processing of payments due to the participants and the training centres.
He said: Furthermore, we are pushing funds to complete the production of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) as well as obtain Essential Training Materials (ETMs) before the commencement of the programme.
“The 100, 000 artisans to be trained also includes the 29,000 artisans who were graduated in the foundation phase of the programme.
“They are to look out for formal notification as letters will be dispatched very soon.
“Additionally, the comprehensive list of the 100,000 trainees onboarded will be displayed on both the SUPA website (www.supa.itf.gov.ng) and on ITF’s official website (www.itf.gov.ng),” he said.
He explained that the Phase One training is designed to last for approximately six to eight weeks.
“Thereafter, all the artisans in training will be given an opportunity to write the certification examination at the end of the programme.
“Successful candidates from this phase will automatically transition to SUPA Phase 2 where the technical training in their chosen trade area will be undertaken and certification examination will be written,” he said.
Mr Ogun said that currently, ITF plans to undertake another round of training centre assessment to increase the number of enlisted centres from 800 to at least 1,500 centres.
Additionally, he said the management is in talks with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) on bulk purchase of training equipment to support these privately owned centres enlisted under SUPA.
“This is to ensure that the three exits into the larger economy identified under SUPA are fully activated.”
Furthermore, he said ITF has reached an advanced stage in its work with the Nigerian Employers Consultative Association (NECA), to link SUPA graduates with industries for gainful employment.
“Also, the structure for SUPA business incubation is being finalised and will be put to test in other special projects which will be delivered very soon,” he concluded.
