By Olaleke ASHAFA
The German Dual Vocational Training Partnership with Nigeria on Sunday announced its readiness to make more young Nigerians qualified for employment opportunities.
TBI Africa said its Coordinator, Mr Stephen Awoyele, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the organisation had, between 2012 and 2018, trained many young Nigerians to become employable.
According to him, the dual vocational partnership project between Nigeria and Germany, which started six years ago, ended in December, last year.
“The Dual Vocational Partnership ran for six years during which many young Nigerians were trained in techincal and administrative skills that have made them employable.
“We are happy to announce that many of these young men and women are currently engaged with different companies or are self-employed.
“During these last six years, we have successfully trained 300 trainers in different professions, and also trained about 285 apprentices, who are currently working in different companies,’’ he said.
Awoyele said that his organisation had, within the period, achieved its set objectives, adding that it would upscale its intervention in 2019 by engaging with more organisations for the sake of more young Nigerians.
He said that it was imperative for more young Nigerians to be exposed to vocational skills for the nation to realise her Vision 20-2020 Industrialisation programme.
According to him, industrialisation would be a ruse without giving the requisite skills to some of Nigeria’s young men and women.
The German Government official said that the organisation would be approaching different multinational companies, individuals and outstanding Nigerian companies in 2019, to buy into the vocational programmes.
“We are approaching more of these companies and individuals this year, to upscale our interventions in making more young Nigerians qualified and employable,’’ he said.
The German vocational education and training system, also known as the dual training system, is highly recognised worldwide due to its combination of theory and training embedded in a real-life work environment.
The system offers an excellent approach to skills development, covering initial vocational education and training, further vocational education and training, careers, employability, occupational competence and identity.
With the dual system, Germany enjoys low youth unemployment and high skill levels.
In Germany, about 50 per cent of all school-leavers undergo vocational training provided by companies which consider the dual system the best way to acquire skilled staff.
