WE ARE REPOSITIONING TO MEET EMERGING CHALLENGES

- Prof. Wapmuk

The Director-General/Chief Executive of the Fund, Professor Longmas S. Wapmuk has said the massive reform witnessed in the last few years had impacted on the way ITF performed its duties. He made this disclosure recently in a speech at the 2007 end of year review and award ceremony in Jos recently.

He said though, privatization and commercialization of public enterprises and policies aimed at poverty reduction have posed human capital challenges, he was optimistic that the repositioning of the Fund would translate to meeting the needs of commerce and industry in the generation of appropriate human capital solutions to positively confront these emergent challenges.

As follow-up to previous years, the Chief Executive pointed out that the ITF in 2007 conducted 61 identification of training needs survey and in response to the needs that had been unraveled by the surveys, the Fund generated 27 new programmes that were implemented for companies in Nigeria. Overall, he noted that the Fund implemented 200 scheduled and 176 unscheduled programmes that attracted 6,700 participants from 1,433 organizations nationwide.

In the area of apprenticeship, Professor Longmas Wapmuk highlighted the achievements of the Fund to include among others, the installation of 29 apprenticeship approvals in 29 organizations, just as it granted approval to six others. To further strengthen the capacity of the Fund to effectively impart skills, the organization entered into collaborative arrangements with Standards Organization of Nigeria, Centre for Adaptation of Technology, Best Konsults Ltd, Cement Company of Northern Nigeria, Niger Dock, Dangote Cement and Chevron, stressing that efforts are under way to collaborate with NBTE, NDE and Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity to evolve a National Vocational Qualifications framework for Nigeria.