The federal government on Monday inaugurated the Innovation Development and Effectiveness in Acquisition of Skills (IDEAS) Project to address challenges facing the nation’s education sector.

The World Bank is supporting the IDEAS Project in each participating state with a $200 million credit facility for its smooth implementation.

The project has four components with the core objective of enhancing the capacity of the Nigerian skills development system to produce relevant skills for the formal and informal sectors.

The first component aims to provide a grant for the rehabilitation and upgrading of federal and state technical colleges to transform their operational models into public-private partnerships, in which industry partners assume a prominent role in institutional governance, management and planning, training and service delivery.

The second component will deliver a comprehensive capacity development intervention package for improving and modernising informal apprenticeships in selected informal sector clusters.

The third component will improve the availability of appropriately skilled and competent technical teachers and instructors in the skills development space throughout the country, including teaching staff of private skills development institutions, starting with teaching staff in technical colleges.

The fourth component will be rolling out the Nigerian Skills Qualifications Framework reform, which involves curriculum development and revision based on the National Occupational Standard and training and certification of assessors and trainers.

The inauguration was marked by a workshop organised by the Federal Ministry of Education in collaboration with the World Bank to ensure the success of the IDEAS project.

The workshop, held at the Banquet hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, was for monitoring and evaluation officers in the education sector.

Education minister Adamu Adamu said the IDEAS Project’s successful implementation would help Nigeria grow its economy.

(NAN)