NVQF to leapfrog skills development, boost youth employment rates

To leapfrog skills development and boost youth employment rates a National Vocational Qualification Framework (NVQF) is required given the teeming youth population in Africa’s largest economy trapped in the largely unstandardised informal sector of the economy with skill sets that could be better harnessed to transform the country.

Tope Toogun, CEO, Accelerated Learning Systems Ltd, remarked “vocational skills are sorely needed but vastly lacking, leaving employers with no option than to import those artisanal skills from neighbouring countries. This speaks to the inability of our Technical Vocational Education Training (TVETs) institutions to produce individuals with those skills.” The real problem though is lack of standards against which to benchmark and measure these skills.

Toogun opined that the most significant hurdle in establishing a NVQF is lack of harmonisation among the various stakeholders, the private sector and others such as the Industrial Training Fund, for instance. “I am not aware of any such collaboration and there is no curriculum developed yet for this purpose in any state, because Lagos State does not have one” he said.

An African Development Bank (AfDB) report in 2013 estimated that 55 percent of Sub-Saharan Africa’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 80 percent of the labour force lie in the informal sector. Nine in ten city and rural dwellers including those in the formal sector have an informal job as a means of support to earn a living or supplement the formal earnings; in Nigeria, it is called a “side-hustle” and majority of this sector’s employees are young people and women demographic. 

For the NVQF to yield desired results it needs National Occupational Standards (NOS), which are public documents that specify the standards of performance that people are expected to achieve in their work and the knowledge and skills they need to perform effectively.

The purpose of both the NVQF and NOS is to bridge the gap between the formal and informal sectors and link them up to industry. “NVQFs are very promising, though we derailed since 1964. We are in talk with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and some experts. We are also talking to training providers, quality assurance managers. The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved a six level framework to be known as NVQF” said Masa’udu Kazaure who is the Executive Secretary, National Board for Technical Education (NBTE).

The six levels comprise, level one: entry level or unskilled employees, level two: foundation or basic skilled employees, level three: operators or semiskilled employees, level four: technicians, craft, skilled and supervisory employees, level five: technical and junior management positions and level six: professional engineers and senior management positions.

Kazaure added “we are starting small, based on counsels and experiences from other countries, which we have studied. We have a lot of data spanning over five years work. When the current NVQF is perfected, it will extend to other sectors. In partnership with stakeholders, sector skills councils, industries and professionals the Board has developed 22 NOS so far. What is required is piloting the delivery of NVQF.”

Some of the sectors covered by the 22 NOS include, plumbing, block laying, plastering, tiling and stone decorative works, electrical installation, carpentry and joinery, welding and fabrication, automobile mechanic, hospitality and catering, travelling and tourism, power system protection, turbine maintenance, mechanical auxiliaries’ maintenance, system electrical operation and electrical maintenance.

Others are: garment making, furniture making, leather works(shoe, bag making), computer hardware maintenance, satellite installation and maintenance, GSM repairs, refrigeration and air conditioning, motor and tri-cycle assembly, repairs and maintenance, agro-processing (rice milling) and office technology.

According to people familiar with the matter, today’s organisations hire people to perform specific tasks that help them in achieving their business goals. They do not want graduates that parade just certificates, but candidates with the right work skills who can contribute to the development of the organisation. They want technical competence; they also want candidates properly equipped with complementary skills such as problem-solving ability, interpersonal skills, effective communication skills (oral and written), reflective and critical thinking ability, organising skills and ability to translate ideas to action.

STEPHEN ONYEKWELU