Governor Uba Sani has approved ₦200,000 for each of the 4,050 graduates of Kaduna State Institute of Vocational Training and Skills Development, amounting to ₦810 million, to ease their transition from training to productive work.
The Governor who made the pledge at the maiden graduation ceremony at the Balarabe Musa campus of the Institute at Rigachukun on Thursday, disclosed that the fund will be administered through the Kaduna State Enterprise Development Agency.
The financial support is to enable the graduates purchase essential tools and use it as seed money for initial working capital, professional registration or transport fare to look for employment opportunities, he added.
Governor Uba Sani said that Kaduna State Government is also ‘’ engaging companies and industries to create opportunities for direct employment, apprenticeships, internships, mentorship, subcontracting and other structured engagements.’’
‘’ We are also developing a digital platform to connect graduates with employers and track employment outcomes. Our measure of success will ultimately go beyond enrolment and graduation figures; it will be the number of graduates employed, enterprises created, incomes improved, contracts secured and communities transformed,’’ he promised.
The Governor said that having qualified for the National Skills Qualification Level II, the graduates ‘’ represent a new generation of skilled citizens prepared to create value for themselves, their families, their communities and the wider economy.’’
He argued that his administration is ‘’ building an ecosystem where young persons will be self reliant ‘’ where a woman can transform a skill into an enterprise; where a person living with disability can participate fully in the economy; and where an artisan can move from informal subsistence to globally competitive craftsmanship.’’
According to him, Kaduna State has three campuses of the Institute, namely the Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa Campus, Rigachikun; Abubakar Dangiwa Umar Campus, Soba; and Sir Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa Campus, Samaru Kataf.
Governor Uba Sani pointed out that the Institute was conceived as engines of economic transformation, aimed ‘’ to equip our people with skills that are useful in Kaduna, competitive in Nigeria and relevant to the wider world.’’
Describing the training as ‘’ deliberately practical, complemented by theory, literacy, numeracy, entrepreneurship and soft skills,’’ he said that graduates were trained across fourteen trade areas.
The trade areas include electrical installation, welding and fabrication, 2aluminium fabrication, computer hardware repairs and maintenance, catering and hospitality, masonry, refrigeration and air conditioning.
