Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH) has put the necessary measures in place to train the informal sectors to acquire the necessary certificate that will accord them local and global recognition with commensurate remuneration.
In a bid to accomplish it, the college is partnering with the Lagos State informal sectors’ artisans and technicians comprising Lagos State Bricklaying Association (LSBA), Nigerian Welding Association (NWA), and Association of Professional Plumbers of Nigeria (APPN).
The Manager, Yaba College of Technology Skills Development Centre, Mr. Amos Alade said that the institution has been committed to fostering education for sustainability global livelihood.
The College is passionate in ensuring that the informal sectors in Nigeria is standardized; he stated.
Alade expatiates that the informal sectors perform key roles in the public but always relegated to the back sit in terms of recognition and certification.
He, however, affirmed that the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) will ensure that the informal sector acquire the due recognition for positive progression in the industry and in the nation at large.
He said that the purpose of the meeting between the three informal sectors and YABATECH centred on the members for certification through National Skills Qualification (NSQ), which will enable them to get employment with huge pay and to be properly recognized.
The NSQ, according to him, will advance member’s recognition, globally, with skills certification that will qualify them to work both in Nigeria and abroad.
In the same vein, the Rector, Yaba College of Technology, Dr. Engr. Ibraheem Abdul enumerated that the partnership with the Associations is not the first time that the College is engaging in such and it will not be the last, others that have been done successfully in the past was with the Computer Telecommunication Engineering Association of Nigeria (COMTEAN) and other pilot schemes.
Dr. Abdul disclosed that the informal sectors have skills, which the world out there is looking for, but the skills are not well packaged and recognized, therefore, YABATECH has brought out a scheme to let their skills be recognized and certified.
Dr. Abdul declared that the College wants to upgrade the informal sector to global acceptable standard, and the upgraded sector will be eligible to train students after certification and get paid for teaching, also to develop more skills for the benefit of the two parties.
The Rector averred that Competency Based Assessment Method is the procedural way of getting the informal sector certified through NSQ.
According to him, “Your presence here today is the testament of your readiness and eagerness to be recognized internationally, and your enthusiasms displayed that you are ready for development and advancement”.
The executives of the three Associations expressed their appreciation for the good gesture extended to them by YABATECH, and were eager to partake in the necessary training for certification that will accord them the proper respect as professionals.
YABATECH and the three Associations eventually signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to cement the relationship for the betterment of the beneficiaries and the nation at large.
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