IAUE VC Calls for Practical Based Education as VOTECH Holds Annual Conference

The Vice Chancellor of Ignatius Ajuru University of Education (IAUE) Professor Okechuku Onuchuku has called on stakeholders in the education sector to lay emphasis on practical based education to reduce youth crisis.

Dec 10, 2023 - 17:05

IAUE VC Calls for Practical Based Education as VOTECH Holds Annual Conference

The Vice Chancellor of Ignatius Ajuru University of Education (IAUE) Professor Okechuku Onuchuku has called on stakeholders in the education sector to lay emphasis on practical based education to reduce youth crisis.

He made the call during the 7th annual conference of the Faculty of Vocational and Technical Education which held on Thursday December 7, 2023 at the Ndele Campus with the theme "Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET): A Roadmap for Mitigating Youth Migration in Nigeria".

Represented by the Associate Dean of Postgraduate School Professor Chibuzor Nwobueze, the Vice Chancellor noted that vocational and technical education is a force for sustainable peace and development especially as it is globally an integral part of youth focused and human development initiatives due to its impact on human capital development, productivity and sustainable economy.

He pointed out that the underutilization and in many cases misutilization of its human and non human resources have adversely affected Nigeria's March towards diversification of the economy and industrialisation. Professor Onuchuku stressed that this created the impetus for rising youth unemployment and it's related crisis. The significant capacity underutilization of youth potential which should have been harnessed through vocational and technical education has led to the dearth of engineering personnel according to the Chief Executive Officer of IAUE. The population of craftsman, artisans and technicians among the youths he further pointed out is facing extinction in Nigeria adding that no solution is viable without education.

The Vice Chancellor recommended the utilisation of various technicians to impact knowledge so as to motivate the students.

He attributed the relative low awareness of the value of vocational and technical education in Nigerian Secondary Schools to the low level of teachers training in the field. These he said can be tackled by aggressively promoting attitudinal change in the skill seeking behaviour of youths, reorientation for policy makers on the value of more participatory youth focused and human development initiatives and a strong political will of Government at all levels backed by action. He concluded by highlighting the need for the Nation to move away from talking about productivity to installing productivity schemes in the various sectoral work systems as a matter of policy with a view to measuring productivity and working towards its continuous improvement.

In his address, the Dean of Faculty of Vocational and Technical Education Professor Isaac Ogundu applauded the Vice Chancellor for creating a conducive academic environment that facilitated the hosting for the first time the annual conference of the Faculty, the seventh in the series at Ndele campus.

He decried the deficiencies in the educational, health, security and other sectors in the Nation emphasizing that youth restiveness is on the increase because of these deficiencies.

The Head of Ndele campus reasoned that if the wrongs are righted and skills grown and maintained, that it will create wealth, tame insecurity with those meaningfully engaged not having reason to leave or abandone the country.

In a lead paper presentation Professor Isaac Dokubo agreed that the best brains were leaving the country for greener pastures because of economic hardships noting that it would have devastating effects on all sectors of the economy. He disclosed that inspite of the porous borders and risk involved in crossing the Mediterranean sea, youths that constitute the workforce are leaving to empower other countries. He blamed mismanagement of scarce resources, unemployment rate which has risen to 9.7%, kidnapping and other vices on brain drain.

The lead paper presenter described TVET as the answer to the quest for white collar jobs as it makes one marketable, employable, sellable to industries who look for what people can do with their hands and not paper qualifications. He called on educational institutions to reduce emphasis on paper qualifications and encourage the enrollment and admission rate of TVET which he noted was on the decline.

The Professor from Rivers State University also called on Government at all levels to increase funding in the education sector adding that people are not interested in the education sector because of the lack of attention there.

Professor Dokubo equally called for blending of courses and curriculum to suit what the industries need. He suggested creating awareness on the values of TVET in addition to establishing agencies for youths to acquire technical skills in all the Local Government Areas with loans made available and accessible for them to build their enterprises.