The Federal Government, through the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), has embarked on the second phase of the Skill Up Artisans Program (SUPA), with the goal of onboarding and training an additional 100,000 artisan/trainees.
Director General of ITF, Dr Oluwatoyin Afiz Ogun noted that the initiative follows the successful completion of the pilot phase, known as the SUPA Foundation, which demonstrated the potential of the program to enhance the skills and employability of artisans across Nigeria.
“Since its 54 years of existence the Skill Up Artisan (SUPA) programme of the ITF, its most well-thought-out and impactful intervention to address head-on the problem of availability of skilled manpower to Nigerian industries and SUPA, aims to aggregate existing and intending artisans in Nigeria by leveraging technology, ascertain their skill level, implement training to upskill these artisans, expose them to international certification examinations and ensure they are connected to the real economy either through direct employment or placement in foreign jobs,” he said.
According to him, “ITF is tasked with implementing this program drawing on its vast institutional and infrastructural capabilities and I spared no effort in delivering on this task.
“SUPA is designed for implementation in three phases of Foundation, SUPA I and SUPA II. While the Foundation program is the introductory phase of the training, SUPA I trainings focus on the acquisition of three soft skills to wit; certification in Artisan Project Management, Artisan Health and Safety and Artisan Ethics and Patriotism. SUPA focuses on technical and entrepreneurial training artisans with exposure to certification examinations by International Awarding Bodies.
“To graduate 29,000 artisans in the Foundation phase of 2024, ITF created a registration platform, conducted a screening exercise in each of the 90 senatorial districts in the country to validate the registered artisans, assessed and enlisted qualified training centres and monitored training of artisans placed in those centres and independent checks with the artisans who participated in the programme confirmed that despite initial hiccups they were duly paid stipend promised by ITF and the training centres were also paid.”
As the ITC prepares to launch the second phase of its SUPA, the Director General has shared that the organization will implement various innovative measures to improve the onboarding experience for trainees.
These steps will also streamline payment procedures for both trainees and training centers and optimize the internal structure of ITF departments to ensure efficient program execution.
“Furthermore, the Fund is pushing to complete the production of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) as well as obtain Essential Training Materials (ETMs) before the commencement of the programme and the 100, 000 artisans to be trained in SUPA phase I include the 29,000 artisans who were graduated in the Foundation phase of the program.
They are to look out for formal Notification of Admission into SUAP Letters which will be dispatched very soon.
