{"id":10133,"date":"2026-11-05T15:45:50","date_gmt":"2026-11-05T15:45:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/05\/fg-equips-38-technical-colleges-offers-free-training-to-tackle-unemployment-businessday-ng\/"},"modified":"2026-11-05T15:45:50","modified_gmt":"2026-11-05T15:45:50","slug":"fg-equips-38-technical-colleges-offers-free-training-to-tackle-unemployment-businessday-ng","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/05\/fg-equips-38-technical-colleges-offers-free-training-to-tackle-unemployment-businessday-ng\/","title":{"rendered":"FG equips 38 technical colleges, offers free training to tackle unemployment – Businessday NG"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Federal Government has equipped 38 federal and state technical colleges across Nigeria to expand access to free technical and vocational education, providing trainees with tuition, instructional materials, monthly stipends and starter packs to support their transition into self-employment.\n<\/p>\n

The initiative, implemented with support from the World Bank under the Innovation Development for Effective Acquisition of Skills (IDEAS) Project, is aimed at equipping young Nigerians with practical skills, tackling unemployment and reducing poverty.\n<\/p>\n

Blessing Ehi Ogwu, national project coordinator of the IDEAS Project, in a statement, disclosed this during an inspection of the IDEAS Project Centre at the Federal Science and Technical College (FSTC), Orozo, Abuja.\n<\/p>\n

Ogwu said the Federal Government had funded and equipped 20 federal and 18 state technical colleges to strengthen practical skills acquisition and improve employment opportunities for young people.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Federal Government is interested in TVET education. That is why we have about 38 technical colleges that the Federal Government has funded and equipped like this, all to enhance skills,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She explained that the institutions provided opportunities for both formal and informal skills training, with FSTC Orozo serving as the designated federal technical college for the Federal Capital Territory.\n<\/p>\n

Ogwu expressed confidence that the free technical education programme would continue under the current administration, urging Nigerians to support its sustainability.\n<\/p>\n

Also speaking, Olatunji Odewunmi, national project monitoring officer in the Minister\u2019s Office at the Federal Ministry of Education, said Nigeria had more than 1,000 technical and vocational education and training (TVET) centres, including about 140 skills training centres across the FCT.\n<\/p>\n

He described the IDEAS Project and the Federal Government\u2019s TVET initiative as complementary interventions designed to widen access to practical skills training nationwide.\n<\/p>\n

According to him, the programme covers tuition, training fees, instructional materials and other essential needs of beneficiaries, including accommodation for those in boarding facilities.<\/p>\n

Trainees also receive monthly stipends, while those who complete their programmes are entitled to starter packs to help them establish businesses.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery one of them will get a starter pack even before the end of the training. By the day they graduate, they can go home with it,\u201d Odewunmi said.\n<\/p>\n

He explained that biometric attendance monitoring had been introduced to ensure commitment and discipline among participants, adding that trainees who failed to meet the required attendance threshold would lose their stipends and eligibility for starter packs.\n<\/p>\n

Project monitoring officers, he said, also visited the centres regularly to assess training activities and ensure that government resources were properly utilised.\n<\/p>\n

Stella Uhuegbu, principal of FSTC Orozo, said the college had adopted a training structure that prioritised practical experience in line with the Federal Government\u2019s revised TVET curriculum.<\/p>\n

She said the curriculum prescribed a 70 per cent practical and 30 per cent theoretical training ratio, adding that the school had provided instructional materials, equipment and technical instructors to meet the requirement.\n<\/p>\n

According to her, the college has more than 1,000 regular students, while its six-month short-term skills programme accommodates over 1,000 trainees across five trades.\n<\/p>\n

The available trades include information and communication technology, automobile mechanics, auto-electrical repairs, catering, garment making and GSM repairs.\n<\/p>\n

Uhuegbu described the IDEAS Project as critical to the success of the TVET programme, noting that the newly constructed and equipped workshops had strengthened the college\u2019s capacity to deliver practical instruction.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the workshops you are seeing here were newly built and well equipped. The essence is to ensure that the skills training aspect of the TVET initiative is achieved because, without the workshops and equipment, we cannot effectively impact skills on the trainees,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She added that trainees would receive certificates upon graduation, alongside starter packs from the Federal Government to help them commence their respective trades.\n<\/p>\n

Some beneficiaries said the practical training had already opened up income-generating opportunities, with some beginning to secure customers and commercial orders before completing their programmes.\n<\/p>\n

Modupe Osundeyi, a catering trainee, said the programme had equipped her with skills in baking and food production, including the preparation of buns, egg rolls and doughnuts.\n<\/p>\n

Another female trainee in the automobile programme said she had acquired knowledge of different engine types, their components, maintenance procedures and basic repairs.\n<\/p>\n

She, however, called on the government to provide more equipment and extend the programme to rural communities to enable more young people to benefit.<\/p>\n

The trainee also encouraged more girls to take up technical trades traditionally dominated by men, saying gender should not limit their career choices.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI am in a class dominated by boys, and there are only two girls. However, that has given me more courage. I am not intimidated by the number of boys in my class,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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Source: <\/p>\n

Businessday NG<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Federal Government has equipped 38 federal and state technical colleges across Nigeria to expand access to free technical and vocational education, providing trainees with tuition, instructional materials, monthly stipends… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10134,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}