The Industrial Training Fund (ITF) has launched the first Framework for National Apprenticeship and Traineeship System (NATS) in the country.
The agency’s director-general, Sir Joseph Ari, said at the launch in Abuja, yesterday, that NATS when fully implemented, would ensure a structured approach to skills acquisition and certification leading to an increase in the number of MSMEs and the expansion of existing ones, a reduction in unemployment, underemployment, social vices and crime rates, and improvement in the quality of services of technicians and craftsmen.
Ari also said it will enrich the National Apprenticeship and Traineeship System with international certification for the various vocational trades, and promote balanced employment and competition amongst youths, just as it will serve as a viable source of foreign earnings for the country through the export of skills.
He said to develop a new vision along that pathway, the agency had collaborative arrangements, while also drawing on the experiences of countries like Germany on its Dual System, Crown Agents of the UK, Senai of Brazil and GIMI of Israel which all emphasise apprenticeship.
Locally, he continued, the agency is collaborating with the Nigerian Employers Consultative Association (NECA), the umbrella body of the Organized Private Sector (OPS), and internationally, the Skills for Prosperity (S4P) UK.
“The firming up of partnership with these bodies gave rise to the First Skills Summit in March 2022 where a new vision anchored on National Apprenticeship and Traineeship System was unveiled. Since then, a lot of work has been done to strengthen this partnership,” he explained.
“Our optimism on the potential of NATS to change the employment situation in Nigeria is premised on the fact that countries such as Germany, China, Austria, the USA and others that at various times faced similar challenges as we are contending with today completely altered their situations with greater investments in skills acquisition and apprenticeship training.
“Borrowing a leaf from these success stories and taking into account our youth unemployment, which has continue to be on the rise and coupled with our commitment to the realisation of the objectives of the National Youth Employment Plan (NIYEP) 2021-2024 that is targeted at finding solutions for young people that are seeking decent and productive jobs, the ITF came up with a new Strategic Policy Direction 2022-2025 with the theme: Re- Engineering Skills for Sustainable Development. The policy is focused on the adoption and institutionalisation of the National Apprenticeship and Traineeship System (NATS),” he added.
