Yaba College of Technology, Lagos is to sign a pact with Lagos State Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation (WAPA) to promote the training of girl child on Mobile App development, Web Application Development, Computers Repairs and GSM and Phone Repairs.
The training, engendered to promote girl-child education in Lagos State will run through the college’s All Girls’ Tech Hub of the Girls Education Skills Partnership (GESP) for a period of three months with certification of the National Skill Qualification (NSQ), globally recognized.
The revelation was made during a courtesy visit made by the Rector, Yaba College of Technology, Dr. Ibraheem Abdul made to the Commissioner, Lagos State Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Honourable Cecilia Bolaji Dada.
Dr. Abdul, while addressing the commissioner and her directors, said that the College has been yearning before now, and it became more intense when the Commissioner came to the institution for the launching of GESP, knowing fully well that partnership with her ministry would be highly beneficial.
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According to him “We deem it fit to bring to your door step the good tidings of some of our very rich programs in order to form a functional collaboration with the Ministry and brew a symbiotic relationship with the college in projecting the ideals of the Ministry, and working with it to achieve its goals which are aligned with our own goals as well”.
“We have with us a population of professional women who are qualified as skilled and can contribute in many ways to the skills acquisition program of the Ministry. As a tertiary institution, our mandate is not only in teaching, learning and research but also in community development, and we take a lot of effort in doing this, we have participated in so many poverty alleviation programs in order to give people sustainable livelihood”.
He averred that at the bedrock of poverty alleviation is skill acquisition in which the Ministry has tapped into, and YABATECH is doing a lot in that area, like skill empowerment having collaboration with developing partners in many ways to develop skills training that will enhance sustainable livelihood, the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) in Canada partnered with the institution to develop programs for skill training in key areas that have greatly help in emancipating Nigerian youths.
In his words, “Having developed this skilled training we now looked for partners with which we can impact the training, taking cognizance that the skills training is very expensive, apart from that it is not yet subsidized, and if we are to be charging the intending learners it is going to be very exorbitant, that is why we are keen to have a collaboration with developing partners to offset the cost”.
He said “One of the College partners, the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) generation unlimited and United Kingdom Foreign Development Organization gave the institution opportunity to train 5,000 girls on Information Technology (ICT) skills without charging them anything, and we are looking for girls to train in Mobile App development, Web Application Development, Computers Repairs and GSM & Phone Repairs, we will be glad to have girls from Lagos State through the ministry that will be beneficiary of this training.
We have our hub called All Girls Tech Hub in which-they are also enjoying the training in collaboration with Computer Village. YABATECH has a very big work-based learning Centre in Computer Village sponsored by Tertiary Institution Trust Fund (TETFund), having established partnership with Mastercraft in Computer Village, we use them to train the learners”.
He revealed that the current partnership with UNICEF can train a certain number of girls, but with further partnership it would sustain training and in the area of training, some of the College staff are available for community service with the Ministry for partnership with YABATECH.
On gender pedagogy, the Rector expressed that the college trains teachers to be able to deliver while being gender sensitive, by eliminating gender bias in training. He called for the exposure of Lagos teachers in the state to the training.
Dr. Abdul said that the institution is partnering with INASP in United Kingdom on gender responsive pedagogy in training in Nigeria, and Lagos State being the Centre of Excellence can partner with the College by inculcating gender sensitiveness in teaching and learning in Lagos State schools.
In her response, Honourable Bolaji Cecilia Dada was very elated to receive the YABATECH team in her office and disclosed that she was very impressed with what she saw in the college during her visit for the launching of the Girl’s Tech Hub and confirmed that the relationship with YABATECH will be a symbiotic one indeed.
The Ministry, she hinted, is capable of supplying five thousand (5,000) girls for the training in YABATECH, having 19 skills acquisition Centres under the Ministry, where various skills and vocations are being taught.
This year, over 5,000 learners were graduated, and the skills that YABATECH came to propagate are not part of the skills being taught in the Ministry; therefore, the ministry will be happy to collaborate with the College for the three months training.
The Commissioner promised to advertise the program in collaboration with YABATECH to create the necessary awareness in the state for the girl-child to seize the ample opportunity.
Hon. Dada also assured the College that the volunteered staff of YABATECH for community service will be regularly invited as facilitators during the programs of the Ministry and will be remunerated.
She applauded YABATECH for the gender bias elimination initiatives and promised that the 350 instructors of the Ministry will be available for the training on eliminating gender bias.
The GESP Project Manager, Dr. Funmilayo Doherty, highlighted that the training can be for both physical and virtual as there are 3,500 spaces, strictly for online learners.
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