FG mandates students to possess ICT skills before graduation

The Federal Government through Tertiary Education Trust Fund says it is determined to bridge the digital skills gap between industries and schools.

This is as the Executive Secretary, TETFund, Sonny Echono said the government has drafted a policy to ensure that students in higher institutions acquire digital skills before graduation.

Speaking in Abuja on Monday at the 2023 Train the Trainer ICT Capacity Workshop for Beneficiary Institutions in North Central zone, Echono said that bridging the digital skills gap would help produce graduates that are globally competitive.

According to him, the need for capacity building, internet access availability, electronic journals, database subscription, and many others have been identified in our various institutions.

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He stressed the importance of digital technology as a way of advancing research of the beneficiary institutions and the nation at large.

“The Federal Government has drafted a policy as a minimum academic standard which would require that graduates possess an ICT knowledge before graduation.”

Speaking further, Echono said that digital literacy was necessary as the country was not producing enough skilled manpower that would serve the country’s 220 million people.

He also said that there was a mismatch between employers and skills produced by graduates, hence the need to close the gap.

”In today’s world, there is a template on which one can operate. Even our teaching staff, non-teaching staff, and management staff, including the majority of the workforce, do not possess these digital skills.

”We at TETFund want to do our best to bridge that gap and if we succeed in ensuring our students are digitally literate, it will make them marketable and create avenues for enhanced research,” he said.

He, therefore, pledged the commitment of the fund to sustain the initiative to ensure every institution is globally competitive and as well Nigeria could compete favourably in the committee of nations.