The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, has stated that the ministry will collaborate with the Giessen-Friedberg Chamber of Commerce in Germany to leverage the skills of Nigerian TVET graduates, aiming to help address the skilled manpower gap in Germany.
Alausa stated this when he received a delegation from the Chambers led by the Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Matthias Leder, according to a statement issued by the GCOC on Wednesday
The minister said the Federal Government has revitalised all technical colleges to equip young Nigerians with practical skills that meet the nation’s technical manpower needs and position them for global opportunities.
“We will now work to set up a technical working group to begin to draft the MoU with you, and we will feed these students in our technical school to the pathway. We will do it in such a way that you will also come in for the assessment of these students while they are in school and even the ones we have trained.
“The ones that your chamber deems fit to travel, we will follow through the processes that we will put in place up to getting training visa from the German embassy,” he said.
Responding to Leder’s remarks on legal labour migration, Alausa said Nigeria is building a pool of young talents capable of bridging the skills gap both locally and internationally, emphasising that this initiative is not brain drain but the export of Nigerian skills and expertise.
The minister said the first cohort of 250,000 participants under the Technical and Vocational Education and Training programme has commenced training, with a target to train one million young Nigerians.
He said the government is currently implementing the Dual Mandate Training programme free of charge in all technical colleges and has mapped out industries where participants will undergo “Student Field Training” to acquire both theoretical knowledge and practical skills.
“When we met last year, in November, we learnt from what you said about this Dual Mandate Training, and I am happy to report to you that we have implemented that in all our technical colleges.
“The Federal Government has announced that going to our technical colleges is going to be free. We are paying everything so it’s free and we have seen the surge of enrollment in our technical colleges has gone up by 400% and we are going to continue this and increase more enrollment,” he stated.
The minister said the government has also mobilised funding from the World Bank to build workshops in all the federal technical colleges as well as some states technical colleges.
He commended Giessen-Friedberg Chamber of Commerce of Germany for promoting Dual Vocational Training in Nigeria in partnership with Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture and other Chambers of Commerce and said the government needs to take ownership of the programme to ensure sustainability.
In his remarks, Leder said between 2012 and 2018, 600 trainers and trainees were supported by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Giessen-Friedberg with vocational training in partnership with the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Ogun State Council of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria and the Nigerian German Business Association.
According to Leder, Dual Vocational Training provides the easiest solution to skills acquisition with a view to solving some of the most complex challenges in industrial growth.
He said the Chamber has selected 18 Nigerians through a rigorous competitive process to begin learning the German language, after which they will be deployed to industries in Germany to undertake a three-year Dual Vocational Training programme.
TVET has seen significant improvements in the last two years, particularly with the Nigerian government’s initiatives.
Recently, the Federal Government has approved N120 billion to strengthen TVET programmes nationwide, aiming to provide at least 650,000 young Nigerians with skills in technology, trades, and digital areas over the next two years.
The National Board for Technical Education also introduced reforms to harmonise and strengthen the National Diploma framework across Nigeria’s TVET sector, enhancing institutional credibility and creating clearer progression pathways for students.
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