Kwara State and the International Vocational, Technical and Entrepreneurship College on Thursday signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Directorate of Employment and the World Bank on the training of 250 students for first-level skills.
The MoU, according to Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed, who signed on behalf of the state government, provides for payment of monthly stipends for each trainee for the period of the training.
Ahmed added that the three months training programme would be followed by a six months industrial apprenticeship to further expose the trainees to their various chosen jobs.
The governor explained that the College was established to provide the best technical, vocational and entrepreneurship training to youths in order to make them gainfully employed and contribute their quotas to the society.
Governor Ahmed added that IVTEC is benchmark against global standards in vocational education through partnership with globally recognized certification bodies like City and Guilds of London among others.
Speaking earlier, the Director General of the NDE, Dr. Nasiru Mohammed Ladan, had said the partnership in the area of skill training is a right step in the right direction, explaining that it would open a new vista in the implementation of the skills for job of components of YESSO.
The Director General, who was represented by Olaomi Roseline, congratulated the Kwara State Government for pioneering output based state-led skills among eight states of Bauchi, Cross River, Ekiti, Logic, Kwara, Niger, Osun and Oyo, disclosed that a total of 316 youths were trained in the last two years.
Also speaking, the Rector, IVTEC, Dr. Ade Somide, explained that the state government’s investment on the college had begun to yield positive results with the partnership of the NDE and World Bank with the college.
Somide told the gathering that the College had graduated 150 trainees in various technical fields ranging from automative to fabrication and welding among others.