UNESCO, Partners, Forge Collaboration To Tackle Unemployment Through TVET.
By Ferdinand Olise
The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, under the Better Education for Africa’s Rise, (BEAR), Phase III Project, has organized a capacity-building workshop for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, TVET, stakeholders. aimed to strengthen their ability to conduct labour market and skill gap analyses that inform responsive TVET systems, and policy development.
Speaking in Abuja on Monday at the workshop, the Head of Office and Representative ai UNESCO Office Abuja, Jean-Paul Ngome-Abiaga, who was represented by the Regional Advisor for Education for UNESCO, Mr Albert Mendy, emphasised the importance of the workshop in training young people to acquires skills and increase youth employment.
In a welcome remarks for the labour market analysis and skill gap analysis training, Mr Abiaga,, said they will work towards creating a sustainable framework to ensure evidence-based policymaking in the TVET systems, noting that the challenges faced in the evolving labour market demand collective efforts to bridge skills gaps and ensure that the youths are equipped with the necessary tools to thrive.
“We train students on technical vocational, focusing on some areas chosen by the country. In this phase of the project, we are working in this overall strategy, political adjustment on the TVET. But we are focusing on Kano. Kano has been chosen by Nigeria to be the pilot State.
And Kano, we are working on the development of the TVET.
“We will work and focus on rice, on tomato and the project is about strengthening the capacity from the production to the agro-processing. It’s a very good project for Africa”, he said.
On his part, the Chairman, Sector Skills Council for Agriculture, Mr Onallo Akpa, emphasised the importance of the initiative towards building the economies and equip youth with techniques to match up with current trends.
In their different contributions, Dr Sunguk Cho, from the KRIVET, the Chief Labour Officer, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment , Juliet Agunbiado,who represented the perm Sec , min of Labour and Employment Dr salihu usman, and the Director, Technology and Science Education, Federal Ministry of Education, represented by Alamuoye Adewumi Ezekiel, expressed their views on the initiative, noting that it will help curb the rate of unemployment, especially in Nigeria.
The stakeholders therefore brainstormed on ways to effectively navigate thorough scrutiny to ensure an acceptable standard to provide these skills for the youth, and shared insights to develop actionable strategies that will empower them to conduct robust Labour Market Analyses and Skill Gap Assessments, so as to work towards creating a sustainable framework for collecting and disseminating Labour Market Information that informs evidence-based policymaking in our TVET systems.
The workshop covered areas such as Labour and skills demand, labour and skills supply, forecasting the future demand and supply, digitalization and labour market.
