By Ola ‘Kiya, Reporting
The PTI Training Academy, run by the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI), has inducted 10 trainees for various skill programmes in order to ease the burden of unemployment in Nigeria, especially the festive Niger Delta region.
Dr Adimula and some of the trainers from the private sector
The available skill programmes, which trainees can assess with a minimum of School Leaving Certificate, include Automobile Mechatronics, Power System Protection, System Operation, Electrical Maintenance, Power Line Worker, Satellite Installation and Maintenance, and Welding and Fabrication, among others.
The induction, which is for the first set of trainees at the academy, was declared open on Wednesday by the PTI Principal/Chief Executive, Dr Henry Adimula, at the PTI Skill Academy complex at Osubi, Delta State.
Dr Adimula (middle in suit) flanked by trainers from the private sector and trainees at the induction ceremony at PTI Skill Academy complex, Osubi.
Addressing the trainees at the event, Dr Adimula stressed the need to place more emphasis on skill acquisition above paper qualifications for Nigeria’s quick economical recovery and growth.
He said the training, which is being anchored by the National Skills Qualification (NSQ) programme under the Federal Government, was targeted towards creating employability and not just certification that cannot generate employment among youths.
“Nigeria today is at a point where a lot of emphasis is placed on the skills that we possess, not just paper qualification.
“And what is needed toady is to demonstrate with our hands and knowledge what kind of skills will make us to be productive even to the economy and also to be able to stand on our own; to be creators of employment rather than wait on government to create employment.
“This already we know is not there anymore and that is why it is a deliberate policy of the Federal Government to place a lot of emphasis on skills qualifications,” he noted.
The PTI chief executive said the National Skill Qualification framework was a system of training, recognition of skills such that whatever skill that the trainees have gained, the body will quantify, assess and qualify it, in order to ascertain its equivalence.
“This is not just ordinary skills acquisition like the ones people are acquiring by the road side.
“Here we have a skill that you will acquire which can be graded, which is nationally and internationally recognized; that can be used even to start your own business.
“The skills that you’re going to gain in this training will be more sufficient even to make you stand in good stead.
“That is why the institute has reached out also to various organizations who are today our partners,” he added.
He appealed to the trainees to be determined to achieve their goals during the programme which, he said, would last between six months to one year.
Head of the National Skills Qualification (NSQ) programmes, Engr. Edicha Abubakar, while addressing the trainees, enjoined them to focus on the training with a warning that they’ll be assessed objectively with no room for shortcuts after the training.
One of the trainees, Barca Daniel Somtochukwu, who expressed optimism to journalists, said he would be trained on Welding and Fabrication.
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