NBTE, Morocco to partner on skills promotion in Nigeria

The National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) said on Monday that plans had been concluded to partner with the Kingdom of Morocco on the promotion of skills in Nigeria.

Prof. Idris Bugaje, Executive Secretary of the NBTE, disclosed this in an interview with the newsmen in Kaduna.

Bugaje said that he led a Nigerian delegation to the Office of Vocational Training and Employment Promotion in Casablanca, Morocco, to understudy the Moroccan vocational training centers.

He said that the centers, located across Morocco, provided expertly skilled workers for Morocco as well as those targeted for export to other countries from the Kingdom.

He described the Moroccan skills model as "very good," especially for subtertiary training.

The executive secretary explained that the country took their young people at the age of 15 through skills and vocational training programmes.

He added that within four to six years, the skilled youths were being exported to Europe and other parts of the world, thereby serving as a huge source of foreign exchange to Morocco.

According to Bugaje, Nigeria can also leverage on its large population of the youth, give them skills, and export them across the world and in the long run, bring foreign exchange to the country.

"This is the way to go, and we are working closely with Morocco to make this happen.

"A Memorandum of Understanding would soon be signed to facilitate the training of lecturers and assessors in Morocco as a collaborative effort.

"The draft MoU is already before the Minister of Education for approval. As soon as this is done, Nigeria and Morocco will work together to promote and equip Nigeria youths with skills."

He described the development as a "win win" for both Nigeria and the Kingdom of Morocco because the kingdom was looking forward to learning from Nigeria.

He said that Morocco was particularly interested in knowing how Nigeria was implementing its National Skill Qualification Framework.

He said that the NBTE had been advocating for skills, adding that the advocacies were already yielding the desired result with the Federal Government's quest for developing the skills of its youthful population.

The NBTE boss added that under his stewardship, the board had facilitated the establishment of six Zonal Offices across the six geopolitical zones to promote and advocate for skills development.

NAN recalls that Bugaje had, on assumption of office as the NBTE boss in April 2021, promised to promote skills and make efforts to adopt the Moroccan model of skills.

He also promised to establish zonal offices to carry out advocacies on skills and interface with industries and other agencies in the zones on skills development.