ITF begins training for 255 youths, women in Bauchi

The Industrial Training Fund (ITF), on Monday commenced a three-month skills acquisition training for 255 youths and women in Bauchi State.

The Head, Training, ITF, Bauchi, Mr Abdulrahaman Atta, said the programme was carried out under its 2022 National Industrial Skills Development Programme (NISDP) and ‘Agripreneurship’ Skills Empowerment Programme (Ag SEP).

Atta said the trade areas selected under the NISDP were tiling and interlocking, solar installation as well as hairdressing.

He also highlighted the trade areas to be covered under the Ag SEP as crop production, poultry and fish farming.

He said that the trainees were selected from the 20 Local Government Areas in the state, adding that 120 trainees were chasen under the NISDP while 135 were selected under the Ag SEP.

The head of training said that the Director General of ITF, Sir Joseph Ari, was very concerned about women empowerment too.

“As the training commences today, it’s going to end on Nov. 11, 2022.

“The trainees will acquire skills that will make them to be self-employed and employers of labour as start up packs will be given to them in their choice of skills,” he said.

He also said that ITF would properly track the trainees in order to ensure that they put the starter packs into appropriate use.

Atta added that any beneficiary who did not attend the training sessions would not be given starter packs.

“Attendance is extremely paramount,” he said.

Also speaking, the Agripreneurship Training Coordinator, Mr Aminu Aliyu, said all the programmes were designed to provide the trainees with the basic knowledge required for them to practise the trades.

He said this was important, considering the current situation in the country where people needed to have entrepreneurship skills for them to live independently and reduce over reliance on government.

One of the trainees, Esther Dakas, expressed gladness to have been selected for fish farming training and promised to put all her efforts into learning the skills.

Another beneficiary of crop production training, Murjanatu Ibrahim, lauded the Federal Government for coming up with such an intervention, and prayed for more people to benefit from the training.

She called on all the beneficiaries to make use of the ‘golden’ opportunity to learn, be punctual and acquire whatever knowledge necessary for them to stand on their own.