By Tony Adibe
The Vocational Skills Department (VSD), of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), has commenced a one-month training of 100 people in Enugu State on Quick-fix Demand Driven Training Scheme (QDDTS) and Technocultural Crafts Training Scheme, (TCTS).
The one-month training will train the beneficiaries on Bead making, Shoe making, Tye & Dye, Cosmetology, Catering, Fasunato/Turban making and others.
Declaring the training open, the Director General of NDE, Mallam Abubakar Nuhu Fikpo, said that the Technocultural Crafts Training was designed to revamp the practice of indigenous cultural crafts as it was observed in the past.
Represented by the Enugu State NDE coordinator, Mrs Ifeoma Ezepue, the DG said that the indigenous crafts were “receiving little attention from the younger generation, thereby risking extinction.”
He encouraged the participants to take the training serious because of their multiplier effect which is a training for life. Fikpo stated that rather than show interest in cultural crafts, youths prefer to preoccupy themselves with the Information Communication Technology, (ICT).
Also speaking, the Director of NDE Vocational Skills Department (VSD), represented by Igwesi Onyekwelu, told the trainees that the training was very important and should be treated as such.
“Today, what we have come here to do is very important. It is a life changing exercise you have embarked upon. This will afford you the opportunity to discover your talents.” Onyekwelu said.
He said the Indigenous crafts should not be left for the elderly alone but that the youths should key into it, adding that there are gains in skills acquisition.
He said: “The youths should not leave the indigenous craft to the elderly. There is survival in skills acquisition not in white collar jobs alone. Skills drive the world.” He said that when people lack skills, they start to kill.
