The Federal Government is set to commence a new nationwide Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programme with an initial cohort of one million trainees, the Executive Secretary of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Prof. Idris Bugaje, has announced.
Prof. Bugaje disclosed this during the Education Writers’ Association of Nigeria (EWAN) Dialogue series, held virtually under the theme “Interrogating Nigeria’s New Technical and Vocational Education Programme (TVET).”
He revealed that the programme, which has already attracted 1.5 million applications, will begin in July for the Master’s six- and 12-month skill tracks, while the technical college component is scheduled to commence in September.
According to Bugaje, the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has allocated N100 billion to finance the pilot phase of the initiative nationwide. Additionally, the NBTE has partnered with the Bank of Industry (BoI) to provide funding for outstanding business proposals from graduates of the programme to support their entrepreneurial ventures.
“The initiative is designed to equip young Nigerians with practical skills that not only meet domestic industry demands but also position them for employment opportunities abroad,” Bugaje said.
He lamented Nigeria’s acute technical manpower gap, highlighting that the country currently has only 129 technical colleges compared to over 15,000 senior secondary schools. He expressed optimism that the new programme would drive higher enrolment into technical education, expand admissions, and encourage states to convert conventional secondary schools into technical institutions.
Bugaje further explained that federal science and technical colleges are being rebranded as purely technical colleges, focusing solely on technical disciplines rather than science-based courses.
“As part of the pilot phase, the federal government will select one technical college in each state of the federation,” he stated. “Out of the 129 technical colleges in Nigeria, 74, representing more than half, will serve as pilot institutions. We believe that once these colleges are rejuvenated, admission numbers will rise, parents will demand more placements, and states may begin transforming regular secondary schools into technical colleges.”
He noted that historically, technical colleges were established to serve as feeder institutions for polytechnics. However, due to the dwindling number of technically trained graduates, polytechnics have increasingly admitted students directly from conventional senior secondary schools, many without any technical background.
“In the 1960s and early 1970s, technical colleges effectively fed the polytechnic system. Through this new intervention, we intend to restore that pipeline and strengthen Nigeria’s technical workforce,” Bugaje said.
