In modern times when the government must place a premium on skills acquisition to empower citizens to advance personal and national development goals, the resort to promoting graduates of non-technical institutions, and the unremitting emphasis on non-technical qualifications have become an albatross for many nations’ dreams of development. In a bid to realign their vision of development and promotion of learning centres where emphasis is focused on skills acquisition programmes, such nations rediscover their roadmap to greatness. When graduates of non-technical schools are given pre-eminent positions to the disadvantage of technical graduates, we need no prophet to tell anyone that the dream of a nation’s dream is being diminished.
Discriminatory Status
The difference in salary structure enjoyed by university graduates over Higher National Diploma (HND) graduates is reflective of the dilemma that is entrenched in the system. Only nations that continue to hope for the best, despite weak structural systems, can embrace the hypocrisy of living in self-denial. For a nation like Nigeria, the battle to enthrone the supremacy of technology over non-technical fields has been long and wearying. Even organisations that are mandated to advance the deployment of technologies as global best practices are still enmeshed in the old order.
Despite many years of battles to have this discriminatory practice between university and technical graduates reverted, there is a ray of hope for the resolution of the issue as the matter is before the National Assembly. Under the leadership of an accomplished researcher who is now the executive secretary of the NBTE, Professor Idris M. Bugaje, the hope of resolving the conundrum is now brighter than ever before. What more, the present administration, headed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is favourably disposed to the promotion of technical education in advancing technical education as the basis for growth and development of the country.
Re-aligning Tech Education
The road to developing technical education for the empowerment of citizens started when the NBTE was established in 1977. The essence was to serve as the regulatory body for technical education and create a platform for the registration of technical schools and skills acquisition centres for the purpose of broadening prospects for employment opportunities. Based on its creation, the nation was supposed to, not only create graduates with National Skills Qualifications (NSQ) for only local employment, but to take advantage of the global labour market.
More than at any time in the history of the agency, the Bugaje-led leadership has been at the forefront of transforming technical education in Nigeria. In the last two years, and in line with the vision of the Tinubu administration, the NBTE under Professor Bugaje has evaluated, reviewed, and accredited nearly 1,500 programmes in over 190 Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) for the country. In achieving this feat, the board has become the hub of innovations in bringing excellence in technical education. Burdened by past experiences when programmes in TVET schools were never evaluated, reviewed, or accredited, the board within the last two years embarked on aggressive quality assurance exercises through visits to no fewer than 77 TVET institutions.
These visits led to a high percentage of programme accreditation through digital quality assurance exercises in compliance with specified standards as contained in the rules governing standards. In the pursuit of efficiency, the deployment of digital innovation led to less deployment of public funds, while increasing efficiency in line with national standards. The outcome of these accreditation programmes led to four programmes being reviewed and newly developed. The two reviewed programmes are HND Dental Therapy and ND Dental Therapy. The newly developed programmes are ND Health Education and Promotion and ND Medical Laboratory Technology. These and many other programmes were evaluated and accredited in line with the vision of the agency to ensure quality and excellence in TVET. At the end, 49 institutions were accredited under the Nursing and Health Technology Programmes Department, with 140 programmes evaluated; 127 programmes granted full accreditation, while 11 programmes granted interim accreditation.
To meet the demand for skills acquisition programmes and training, the board was involved in processing applications for new TVET institutions. In the last two years, arising from the need to provide skilled jobs to meet demand for skilled workers. Through its New TVET Institutions Registration Department, the Bugaje-led management facilitated the approval of 136 TVET schools, comprising 16 polytechnics, 36 colleges of Nursing Sciences; 29 Colleges of Health Science and Technology; nine specialised institutions, and 43 NSQ Training Providers.
One area that has set the NBTE apart is in the area of digital transformation in advancing technical education and training. In digitalising the workings of the board, the agency expanded its single digital portal to about 15 portal platforms in line with a specialised focus.
Staying The Course
This new paradigm shift from a single portal platform to numerous platforms helped to introduce a robust platform that created a conducive ecosystem in integrating the operations of the board by providing real-time information in making decisions for enhanced efficiency. In transforming the operations of the board, the agency created an e-TVET architecture that benchmarked the board as a continental reference for excellence in the digital economy. The recent inauguration of the WorldSkills Nigeria National Team Committee by the Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa, attests to the performance of the board in advancing technical education, following Nigeria’s admission into WorldSkills International.
Under the leadership of a technologically driven mind that is globally acclaimed, the various strides gained in the last two years have been unprecedented. With various partnerships entered by the board with various global firms in training Nigerians to compete in the global labour market, the road to completely overturning the tables of the past is just a matter of time. The NBTE in the last three years has left no one in doubt that the quality of leadership matters in driving profound achievements for a prosperous future.
