The Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Technical, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Education (OSSAP-TVEE) Friday, 21 June, 2024 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment on the development of skills among youths in the country.
The ceremony, which took place at the office of the Minister of Labour and Employment, Hon. Nkeiruka Chidubem Onyejeocha, was witnessed by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Mr. Ismaila Abubakar, directors of the Ministry as well as the OSSAP-TVEE Team.
In her brief remarks before the signing ceremony, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Technical, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Education, Madam Abiola Arogundade, expressed delight at the signing of the agreement describing it as a milestone in the collaborative development and upscaling of skills in Nigeria.
Madam Arogundade, who noted that the percentage of the high-skilled labour in the country currently is at the abysmal low of 15 percent, added that her office is currently engaged in conducting a skills mapping survey across the 36 states of the Federation to identify relevant skills required in the Job Market,
She also pointed out that her office is in collaboration with the TETFUND and the National Bureau for Technical Education (NBTE) both to ensure adequate funding support for its programmes and the Certification of Vocational Skills beneficiaries for proper job placement, among other programmes currently being executed by the office.
Article 3 of the MoU, requires the two bodies to collaborate to achieve an effective and efficient implementation of the President’s 8-point Agenda with respect to Job Creation by creating decent and sustainable jobs per year to Nigerians, particularly the Youths and to work together to achieve the goals of Labour Employment and Empowerment Programme (LEEP).
This, according to the Article, include the creation of 2.5 million jobs annually especially in the area of vocational and entrepreneurship skills, collaborate among themselves on planning, execution and evaluation of LEEP by ensuring the effective utilization of the resources and expertise and to coordinate regular meetings and progress reports that will be scheduled to assess the achievements and challenges of the programme.
While Article 5 of the MoU also confers on the OSSAP-TVEE the responsibility of conducting a skills mapping survey to identify relevant skills required in the Job Market, the Offices agrees to develop a comprehensive curriculum aligned with the identified skills and to oversee the certification process as contained in Article 4 subsection 2 of the MoU.
