INFORMATION ENUGU

By Suzan Edeh

Bauchi—THE Federal Government, yesterday said the Skills acquisition and training centres in Bauchi State, would soon be used for the training of Civilian Joint Task Force, JTF and Internally Displaced Persons in the northeast sub-region.
President Buhari
The government spoke through the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige during the 12th graduation ceremony of trainees at the skills acquisition and training center at the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment in Bauchi.
Represented by the Director Skills Development and Certification of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Ibrahim Jibuya, the minister challenged graduates of higher institutions in the country to be self-reliant and employers of labour, saying the era of white collar jobs were gone.
He said: “My ministry’s renewed commitment to skills upgrading and development stems from the realization that if Nigerians are going to find and keep decent jobs, there need for improved access to modern technology, increased utilization of machines and vast knowledge in the use of technological equipment. For this reason, the ministry has established skill acquisition and training seven centres in Warri, Lafia, Calabar, Lagos, Kaduna, Enugu, adding that more relevant vocational trades will be included in the training and syllables of the ministry.”
The minister lamented the shortage of technical instructors in all the centres, saying efforts were on to address the challenge along with other pressing needs of the centres.
Earlier, the principal of the Skills acquisition centre, Mr. Gbokiss Jatau, said from 2009 to date, the centre had trained 4,186 artisans that were outstanding in various fields and established entrepreneurs who were employers of labour.