By Funmilayo Adeyemi
The Federal Government has commenced a 10-day “Train the Trainer” programme for instructors in Federal Technical Colleges aimed at strengthening Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) across the country.
Mr Adebayo Onigbanjo, National Project Coordinator, Special Programmes Operations and Implementation Unit (SPOIU), Office of the Minister of Education, disclosed this at the opening of the ITE Education Services (ITEES) training in Abuja on Monday.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the training is organised by the Federal Ministry of Education in collaboration with the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE).
Onigbanjo said the initiative was aimed at building the capacity of instructors who would in turn train their colleagues in their respective institutions.
According to him, the programme is designed to equip educators with modern teaching methods, competency-based assessment techniques and practical skills delivery to improve workforce readiness among students.
He explained that the programme became necessary following the overwhelming response to the federal government’s TVET initiative inaugurated in 2025.
According to him, about 1.3 million Nigerians registered for the programme, making it imperative to expand the country’s pool of qualified trainers.
Onigbanjo said the first phase of the exercise would train 60 instructors over 10 days, while another cohort of 60 participants would undergo similar training in Lagos in October.
He added that participants were drawn from Federal Technical Colleges across the country and were already familiar with the existing curriculum.
“The ultimate goal is to increase capacity. We need more people.
“Last year when the programme was inaugurated, we had 1.3 million Nigerians signing up to be trained. To meet that demand, we also need to train the trainers.
“The expectation is that those trained will return to their schools and train their colleagues, thereby scaling up our training capacity nationwide,” he said.
Also speaking, Nabila Muhammad, Programme Lead and Technical Assistant to the Minister of Education, said the objective was to strengthen the capacity of educators in technical colleges by exposing them to competency-based teaching approaches.
Muhammad said the training would enable instructors to place greater emphasis on practical skills rather than classroom theory.
“The expectation is that the trainers will leave knowing how to make their teaching more competency-based.
“Instead of focusing mainly on theory, they will integrate technical skills into learning and better prepare students for the workplace,” she said.
A Singaporean facilitator, Choo Lian, said the programme would expose participants to proven pedagogical methods used in Singapore for teaching practical and technical skills.
She said the training would also focus on effective demonstrations, student participation, constructive feedback and competency-based assessment.
“We are not teaching the various trades themselves. We are teaching the pedagogical skills required to teach whichever trade they specialise in.
“When teaching practical skills, there is a set of performance criteria based on industry expectations, and those criteria are used to assess students’ competencies,” she said.
One of the participants, Adegoke Odebode, an Assistant Director of Education at Federal Technical College, Ijebu-Mushin, described the programme as timely, saying it would enhance instructors’ ability to deliver practical, industry-relevant training.
Odebode expressed optimism that the knowledge gained would improve the quality of technical education in the country (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
Edited by Deborah Coker