Aware that an economy needs skilled men and women and that the lack of artisans can scuttle any government economic plan, the Lagos State government has held its seventh Tradesmen and Artisans’ Week & Graduation for some re-trained artisans and tradesmen, Daniel Essiet reports.
The big infrastructural work and the expanding business districts across Lagos State demands critical skills, such as fitters, turners, welders, boilermakers, sheet metal and tool and dye makers.
Lack of artisans could scuttle any government plan targeted economic growth. The shortage also leaves experts concerned about the short, medium – and long-term capacities of the country – to deal with poverty and unemployment.
To reverse this, the Lagos Government is strengthening it vocational training scheme to make it more functional. The government wants to see an apprentice system, where trainees would qualify through a mixture of practice and theory.
The Commissioner, Ministry of Wealth Creation and Employment, Babatunde Durosimi-Etti expressed the desire to put in place in Lagos, a system where vocational institutions and schools would contribute to the training of artisans as well as a class of workers with lower levels of qualification.
Besides, the training would promoting a business culture for tradesmen and artisans.Thus to achieve his, the commissioner is partnering with the biggest trainers of artisans and tradesmen to join hand with the government to train and teach large numbers of candidate artisans.
Durosimi-Etti believes this might help turn the tide in terms of skills’ shortages. Many of the efforts are being put in place to increase monitoring of the performance of accredited artisan trade test centres; developing, maintaining and apply a data base for assessing and moderating artisan trade tests; developing and maintaining a national data base of registered artisan trade assessors and moderators.
Speaking at the seventh Tradesmen and Artisans’Week & Graduation in Lagos, the commissioner maintained that the government was working towards an artisan development system that ensures only well-trained and certified tradesmen and women would practise.
Entrepreneurship Development in the Ministry of Wealth Creation and Employment Director, Mrs. Taiwo Abiose, said the long-term intention of the government was to make it compulsory for all artisans to be registered with the ministry for easy coordination of their activities.
She reiterated the determination of the ministry to elevate the potential of the artisan sector to create jobs. The efforts of the ministry are being given a boost by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode who promised to reverse the trend of patronages of foreign artisans above their local counterparts.
He granted approval for the training of 1,500.
Ambode said his administration recognises the contributions of the informal sector as the vehicle of growth and economic development.
The governor expressed the hope that with the vigorous trainings which the graduands had been exposed to coupled with the approved training for a new sets of artisans designed to sharpen the entrepreneurial skills of the artisans and as well as broaden their horizon for a competitive edge, the desire for foreign artisans as a result of their expertise would be reduced to the barest minimum.
The governor said: ‘’Our administration recognises artisans as major players and the conveyor belt for industrial enterprise in the country. We shall work assiduously to design and develop programmes aimed at upscaling artisans’ skills and capacities.
‘’Premised on this, Lagos State government is particularly passionate about this sector which is demonstrated by the various programmes anchored by the Ministry of Wealth Creation and Employment in with other agencies.’’
Ambode maintained that except efforts were made to shift focus to equipping and rebuilding the informal sector, artisans cannot be vibrant enough for the prevailing realities.
He said that credible members of Lagos State Council of Tradesmen and Artisans (LASCOTA) would access soft loans from the already inaugurated N25 billion Empowerment Trust Fund (ETF), stressing: “This government would not sit and wait for oil prices to rebound in the international market before arriving at a solution to our challenges.’’
The post Addressing the artisanship gap appeared first on The Nation Nigeria.