The Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry Ltd. (ABUCCI), says it is partnering with the German government to train 40 Nigerian technicians and engineers to make them employable in modern technologies.
Mr Tony Ejinkeonye, the President of ABUCCI, said that the 20 days workshop, which had just started was being held in partnership with the German Chambers of Commerce to train engineers, technicians businessmen, administrators and people from other sectors of the economy.
Ejinkeonye said that the German chamber also known as “Giessen-Friedberg’’ was holding the training to improve the quality of vocational education to fast track the country’s industrial development.
“The training is to bridge the skills gap existing in technical areas in the country’s industries and to certify them in their various professions.’’
The ABUCCI president said that the training was targeted to intervene on two major areas in the nation’s economy – office administration and project management.
He said that one of the jurisdictions of ABUCCI was to promote and protect the interest of businesses in the FCT being the centre of the nation’s power and unity.
Ejinkeonye expressed the hope that the training would go beyond mere preliminaries obtained in work processes, adding that FCT would also enjoy reliable supply of quality staff through the training.
The training, with its motto: “Training -the-trainers’’ was jointly organised by ABUCCI, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Ogun State Chambers of Commerce Mines, Industry and Nigeria Government Business Association and the German Chambers of Commerce.
Ejinkeonye advised the participants to be serious about the training, saying they would also train their colleagues in their various offices after the programme.
Mr Kehinde Awoyele, the Project Coordinator of German Dual Vocational Partnership with Nigeria said that the training was to bridge the skill gap in technical areas in the country.
Awoyele said that the objective of the training was to increase the employability of young men and women in the country.
“The training is a private sector driven project to increase the expertise of the trainees in their various professions,’’ he said.
Awoyele said that the participants were people selected from the private sectors through their organisations, adding that these associations were the drivers of nation’s economy.
He added that the different business associations were impacting positively on Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Products (GDP).
Awoyele urged the trainees to be serious with the training, adding that they were going to become certified trainers who were going to pioneer the German dual vocational training in Nigeria.
Earlier, the Director General of Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Dr Chukkas Onaeko, said that the training was aimed at empowering youths on vocational education to create employment opportunities in the country.
Onaeko, who was represented by Mr Shehu Isiaku, the Training Manager of ITF, said the training was to copy the German and Brazil models developed for vocational training for the countries’ technicians.
“These countries are among the technologically advanced countries in the world because of their vocational education training,’’ he said.
Onaeko said that with vocational training, participants would have better precision on technology, adding, “Brazil is the sixth largest economy in the world due to vocation technical education.’’
She said that ITF was partnering ABUCCI on the training because it’s centre would be used for the training.
Mr Aliyu Zakari, one of the participants from ITF Model Skills Training centre, said that the training had widened his knowledge in some technical skills.
Zakari called on the organisers of the training to make the workshop an annual event so that more Nigerians could participate in the training.
