President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will on Tuesday declare open a 3-day national conference that would address poverty, unemployment, and the skills gap in Nigeria.

The conference is designed by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) think-tank and intellectual resource center, The Progressive Institute (TPI).

A statement by the Head of Media and Strategic Communication of the institute, Wale Abideen, the 3-day talk shop is themed: ?Vocational Skills Acquisition, Entrepreneurship and Challenges of Development in Nigeria?, is scheduled to hold from Tuesday, 17th to Thursday 19th December, 2024 at the Banquet Hall, Presidential Villa in Abuja.

The Chief host of the conference and APC National Chairman, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje said the conference is an intervention by the APC leadership to contribute to the efforts of the Federal Government towards addressing the challenges of youth unemployment as well as the current gaps between many University degrees and workplace requirements.

?TPI will assemble a team of Experts and practitioners to undertake empirical and clinical appraisals of the current challenges and proffer creative and imaginative solutions which will be forwarded to the Federal Government for consideration and implementation?.

Dr. Lanre Adebayo, Director General of TPI noted that the event is a policy-driven conference to address the advanced skills sector such as Advanced Construction Technologies, Digital Technologies, Technical skills in Mining, Maritime, Advanced Welding Certifications, Skills in Sustainable development and Climate Change Agriculture (including value chain processing, agro-preneurship) etc.

The DG said the conference will undertake a comparative and historical analysis of the experiences of countries such as Singapore, the Philippines, and Malaysia which built their economies on related advanced vocational skills.

?Foreign and Nigerian-based groups have been invited to deliver position papers on these areas. And some of them from Britain and China have offered to raise funds for a proposed Zonal Skills Acquisition Centers,? he said.

He said the essence is to shortlist these skills, especially in the context of their relevance to each of the Country?s six geo-political areas.

He added that the conference seeks a review of the extant Nigerian educational curriculum with a view to examining how to restore and strengthen the vocational content.

?It will also examine how to further utilize the cooperative model in organizing small and medium scale enterprises into powerful economic units especially to create wealth on a sustainable basis?

It promises to be expository as Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEDAN), Nigerian Chamber of Commerce, Bank of Industry, Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, Federal Ministry of Youth Development, Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, and other government and non-government mental organizations, NGO have been invited to contribute to the conference. (The Nation)

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