Technical skills can reduce youth unemployment — IIT

Institute for Industrial Technology logo

The Institute for Industrial Technology has called for greater investment in technical education and skills development to tackle youth unemployment in Nigeria.

The Director of IIT, Mr David Okechukwu, made the call at a press conference marking the institute’s 25 years of providing technical education in Lagos.

Okechukwu said technical training should go beyond teaching young people how to operate machines, stressing the importance of ethics, competence, safety and practical experience.

He said IIT was established to provide young people with technical and moral training after studying technical education models in Asia and Europe, adding that the institute adopted the Asian model while maintaining European standards.

The director noted that students are trained in several technical areas to enable them to perform different tasks and adapt to changing demands in the workplace.

He said the training also includes in-company experience, where students are monitored and required to report their progress to the institute.

Okechukwu said many students secure employment before completing their internships, while the institute’s alumni association assists graduates with CVs, job opportunities and further education.

He said youth unemployment could not be addressed by expecting everyone to work for someone else, noting that technical skills could enable young people to provide services and earn a living for themselves.

The IIT director also stressed the need to combine technical education with entrepreneurship and business skills.

On the role of regulators, Okechukwu said bodies such as the National Board for Technical Education and the National Skills Qualification Framework should support institutions providing quality training.

He said IIT was not primarily a research institution, but students could use artificial intelligence to improve their projects.

Okechukwu, however, stressed that students must first understand the fundamentals of their fields so they can identify errors in information generated by AI.

He said IIT’s intensive training was designed to develop responsibility, character, competence and ethics among students.

Okechukwu added that the institute provides need-based scholarships, including the JB Cushmore Scholarship, which covers the full training cost of about N4.5m per student.

Also speaking, the Head of Industrial Linkage and Marketing, Mr Christopher Itua, identified the social preference for university and white-collar careers as a major challenge facing technical education.

• FG to deploy 90,000km fibre across Nigeria by 2028 – APC chair
• Nollywood actress Yvonne Jegede warns students against distractions
• Foursquare GO urges FG to tackle rising living costs

“People generally want white-collar jobs rather than blue-collar jobs,” he said.

Itua said the challenge had affected enrolment at IIT, which, despite operating for 25 years, had not always been able to fill its available admission spaces.

He noted that the institute had received international interest, including from Germany, where there is demand for skilled technical workers.

Itua said technical education required proper planning because of the cost of equipment and regulatory requirements, adding that technical institutions did not necessarily require large areas of land and could expand vertically where necessary.

He said the scholarship programme had helped young people from disadvantaged backgrounds acquire technical skills and improve their circumstances.

“This school has indeed been a way of lifting people out of poverty,” he said.

Itua said IIT began with 45 students on full scholarships and later admitted another 10, with the aim of helping young people from disadvantaged families acquire skills within about three years.

Itua said students work directly with equipment, including dismantling and reassembling engines and generators, while learning to fabricate and maintain some parts.

He said companies donate equipment and send workers to the institute for training, while partnerships with industry help students gain practical experience.

He said there was a need for more specialised training in areas such as oil and gas pipeline welding, adding that organisations could support the development of such skills locally instead of depending entirely on foreign expertise.

He said the “japa” trend had also affected the technical workforce, as some companies lost skilled workers who travelled abroad, forcing them to reconsider how they develop and retain technical personnel.

Itua said government, regulators, private companies and training institutions all had roles to play in addressing the skills gap.

He stressed that technical education should be linked to actual employment opportunities and the needs of the economy.