Bugaje asks FG to reposition polytechnics to deliver on skills, says in 10 years to come, university degrees will be irrelevant without skills

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The Executive Secretary of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Prof. Idris Bugaje, has warned that in the next 10 to 20 years, university education will become irrelevant unless skills are imbedded into their curriculum.
He asked the federal government to reposition the nation’s polytechnics to deliver on skills acquisition.
Bugaje spoke in an interview with journalists on Wednesday in Kaduna, shortly after a visit of the House of Representatives Committee on Federal Polytechnics and Higher Technical Education to the NBTE.
He said skills development is the top agenda of the NBTE, noting that, globally, the entire world is now moving towards skills.
He called on Nigerians to do away with the mentally for degrees and embraced skills in order to be self-reliant.
Bugaje said, the youths need to be empowered through skills acquisition in the polytechnics to address the challenges of unemployment.
“We are trying to make sure that Nigerians embrace skills, especially, the Tinubu administration that wants to work with young people”, he said.
According to him, “Skills is the way, palliative is not, it is like giving somebody fish. If you teach somebody how to fish, he will be rich forever, he will be self sufficient forever.
“Skills as we have always said in NBTE, is our top agenda, because globally, the entire world is now moving towards skills.”
Speaking further, Bugaje said, “If somebody has a degree without skills, nobody will employ him, but somebody with skills, even without degree, he can get employment, he can even employ himself.
“That is the way to go and we are hoping that someday, we can change the narrative and Nigerian youths will be empowered.
“There skills gabs all over the wall. The world is looking for Nigerians to fill those gaps across Europe , America and Asia.
“So we need to empower our youths, train them in the polytechnics and give them the necessary skills.”
The NBTE boss that, “In the next 10 to 20 years, university education will become irrelevant unless there is a paradigm shift- skills.
“Unless universities imbibes what we are doing in the polytechnics by imbedding skills into university education, they will become irrelevant.
“The big places like google, Microsoft, all these big companies, will always look at the portfolio of skills and certification that you have, not your degrees.
“The world has already changed, it is only in Nigeria that we have the mentality for degrees.
“China converted 600 universities to polytechnics because they don’t deliver on skills.
“Nigeria must change that attitude, we must come back to skills. We must convert some of our universities to polytechnics.
“Polytechnics must be repositioned to deliver on skills. That is the way to go. “

 

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