FG moves to link education, skills training with global job market – Alausa

By Felix Khanoba

The Federal Government is seeking to strengthen the link between Nigeria’s education system and the international labour market, with the Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa, CON, saying the country must produce workers equipped for emerging global employment opportunities.

Alausa disclosed this in New York at the Hire From Nigeria side event held on the margins of the 81st United Nations General Assembly, where he outlined measures being pursued by the Federal Ministry of Education to develop a skilled workforce capable of meeting the requirements of the global outsourcing and digitally enabled services industry.

The minister said Nigeria’s education sector had a critical role to play in transforming the country’s large youthful population into a reliable pool of certified professionals for employers within and outside the country.

“Nigeria’s greatest asset is its people: a young, ambitious, English-speaking and increasingly digitally capable population. Our task in Education is to turn that scale into verified competence and reliable service delivery,” a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media and Communications, Ikharo Attah, quoted the Minister to have said.

According to Alausa, Nigeria’s youthful population, widespread use of the English language, cultural adaptability and expanding digital capacity give the country a foundation to participate more actively in the global outsourcing and digitally enabled services market.

He noted that the sector could contribute to job creation and export earnings while allowing Nigerians to access international career opportunities without necessarily relocating abroad.

The minister, however, said the country’s ability to benefit from the expanding market would depend on the quality, relevance and reliability of the skills produced by its education and training institutions.

He identified the mismatch between existing training and changing industry requirements, inadequate work-based learning and limited access to internationally recognised certification as some of the challenges confronting the sector.

Alausa said the ministry was responding through curriculum reforms, stronger accreditation and quality assurance mechanisms, alongside the expansion of digital and technical training programmes through federal institutions and credible private-sector providers.

“We need a permanent employer-led feedback loop, not occasional curriculum reviews,” Alausa said, stressing that employers should participate in the process from programme design and training to assessment, certification and recruitment.

He said the administration was also working to reposition technical and vocational education and training as a viable route to employment, entrepreneurship and access to international opportunities.

The minister disclosed that the Federal Government’s free TVET programme had received more than one million applications, with 160,000 trainees supported through about 1,200 centres nationwide, comprising Federal Technical Colleges and accredited private training centres.

He said the government was equally developing different routes into the labour market, including university education, TVET, apprenticeships and continuous professional development, with each pathway designed to support employment, enterprise creation and further learning.

Alausa also identified artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies as areas requiring urgent attention in the preparation of young Nigerians for the future workplace.

“We must train young people to work with artificial intelligence, not to compete with it on routine tasks.”

He said training would increasingly focus on capabilities that complement technology, including judgement, creativity, domain expertise, data literacy, cybersecurity, cloud services, software development, customer success, quality assurance and AI-enabled operations.

Under the Digital Training Academy, the government is partnering with global learning platforms, including Coursera and Pluralsight, to provide 32,000 Nigerians with free access to professional digital and technology training.

The initiative covers areas such as product management, cloud computing, cybersecurity, IT automation, artificial intelligence and machine learning, agentic artificial intelligence, financial technology, parallel computing, quantum computing and natural language processing.

The minister further highlighted the Student Venture Capital Grant as part of efforts to help students in STEMM disciplines convert innovative ideas into commercially viable businesses and strengthen the relationship between education, innovation and enterprise.

He said the speed of technological development also meant that the education system must equip Nigerians with the ability to continually acquire new skills, unlearn outdated practices and retrain throughout their careers.

Alausa consequently called on international employers, Business Process Outsourcing operators, investors and development partners to move beyond expressions of interest and establish practical partnerships capable of producing investable talent pipelines.

He urged employers to clearly define their workforce requirements, participate in designing training programmes, offer work-based learning opportunities, recognise credible Nigerian certifications, recruit from local talent pools and provide feedback on the performance of workers.

BPO operators and investors, he said, should also consider establishing delivery centres beyond the country’s major commercial cities while supporting training infrastructure, connectivity, quality assurance systems and management capacity.

According to him, development partners can contribute through scalable certification programmes, instructor development, inclusion of women and underserved communities, labour-market intelligence and systems for measuring employment outcomes rather than merely counting trainees.

He added that international institutional partnerships and centres of excellence in Nigerian institutions would improve global linkages, benchmarking and knowledge transfer.

In response, the Federal Ministry of Education will deepen industry participation in curriculum development and certification, expand market-driven TVET and digital-skills programmes, strengthen accreditation and quality assurance, and improve coordination between educational institutions, training providers and employers.

The measures are part of the ministry’s responsibilities on the supply side of the National Talent Export Programme, which targets one million export-linked jobs and 10 million globally certified Nigerians by 2030. The ministry also chairs the programme’s Supply Technical Working Group.

Alausa said the education reforms were aligned with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, particularly its priorities on human capital development, job creation, skills acquisition and inclusive economic growth.

“Under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, our commitment is clear: we will continue to invest in the skills, knowledge and innovation of our young people and build an education system that gives Nigerian talent the capacity and confidence to compete and succeed anywhere in the world,” he said.

The minister said the government would continue to focus on creating an education and skills ecosystem capable of connecting Nigerian talent with opportunities, strengthening the country’s participation in the global economy and enabling more young Nigerians to build sustainable careers both locally and internationally.

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