By Oluwakemi Kindness
More than 250,000 Nigerians are undergoing technical and vocational skills training at about 1,200 centres nationwide under the Federal Government’s Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programme.
The Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja during a meeting with the House of Representatives Committee on Federal Polytechnics and Higher Technical Education.
Alausa said the programme aims to equip Nigerians with practical, industry-relevant skills to tackle unemployment and address shortages of skilled workers.
He explained that each trainee receives a monthly stipend of 30,000 naira, while participating training centres receive 50,000 naira per student monthly to support practical instruction, equipment and facilities.
The minister revealed that the programme attracted about 1.3 million applications during its first enrolment exercise and nearly 1.4 million in the second, but funding constraints and limited training capacity had restricted admissions.
He noted that the ministry had streamlined the trades covered from nearly 60 to about 22 priority areas, including fashion design, solar photovoltaic installation, electrical installation and plumbing.
According to him, the government is developing a job portal to connect trainees with employers, while collaboration with the Bank of Industry will support beneficiaries seeking to establish businesses.
“We don’t just want them to be job seekers. We want them to be micro-entrepreneurs and do business themselves,” Alausa said.
The minister disclosed that technical education had been made free in federal technical colleges and one selected state technical college in each state, with government covering tuition as well as other school fees.
He explained that this is in partnership with institutions in Singapore to improve the capacity of technical-college instructors and polytechnic lecturers.
The meeting followed concerns over the ministry’s failure to respond to six letters from the committee seeking information on the TVET programme between January 2025 and July 2026.
Committee Chairman, Rep. Fuad Laguda, said the information was needed to assess the programme’s implementation, funding, training quality and employment outcomes.
He added that the minister had been summoned after neither he nor a representative attended a meeting scheduled for July.
Edited by Julian Osamoto
