Edo state Governor, Godwin Obaseki said that Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) was a vital key to ending youth unemployment in the country.
Obaseki made the call while flagging off a 3-day Technical and Vocational Education Training Workshop in Benin on Thursday.
He said that Technical and Vocational Education Training was also key to steaming the tide of migration of youths to foreign countries through dangerous routes.
Obaseki said the workshop, with the theme; “Revamping Technical and Vocational Education in Edo State” was in line with the vision of his administration to revamp technical education in the state.
He said the workshop was inspired by low human capacity development and general depreciation in technical and vocational based education.
He regretted that the situation had created a huge gap in the system noting that “there is no technical manpower to fill the growing technical demands of the modern economy”.
He called for the incorporation of entrepreneurial education as an integral component of Technical and Vocational Education in the state.
He said a substantial amount had been voted in the 2017 budget for the development of technical and vocational schools in the state.
The governor therefore called on experts gathered at the workshop to use the platform to deliberate on the way forward in revamping TVET in the state.
The chairman of the Strategic Planning Committee, Prof. Julius Ihonvbere and the Chairman of the Workshop, Prof. David Awanbor said they were optimistic that the workshop would achieve its aim.
They said that the participants were to come up with what will serve as a guide to the state government on how to revamp Technical and Vocational Education in the state
Also speaking, the Registrar, National Board of Technical Examination Board (NABTEB), Prof. Ifeoma Isiugo-Abanihe described the workshop as an epoch making one as technical education was the fastest way to develop a state.
The 3-day workshop which started on Feb. 22 is expected to end on 24.
