Excellence Community Education Welfare Scheme, a non-governmental organisation in partnership with The Skills Network, a European Union and British government funded educational institution, is initiating vocational programmes in the county that would award United Kingdom accredited certificates to its students.

Speaking in Uyo on Wednesday during the signing of the Memoranda of Understanding between ECEWS and TNS, Consultant to TSN, Mr. Wilson Inije, said the programme was introduced to mitigate the cost Nigerians incur to study outside the country.

He explained that the initiative was an opportunity to reduce the suffering Nigerians experienced in acquiring accessible and affordable vocational skills and qualifications that would make them employable even outside the country.

Inije stated that the programme, which covers sectors beyond education, health care, business and commercial, offer courses relevant to specific market needs, and operate an e-learning platform that would be comfortable for students. He revealed that Nigeria is the first country in Africa where the programme has been introduced.

He said, “To us, it is the opportunity to better the lots of our people that are suffering. The philosophy of the skills network is to help the lower cadre of the society climb up into a better future. The qualifications are awarded by accredited awarding bodies in the United Kingdom and it is recognised nationally and globally.

“What we are doing is connecting people to skills that will move their lives forward. It is a vocational training and the sponsors have invested hugely in the process; that made us duty bound to offer the courses at a reduced and subsidized rate. The same price going for people in Britain in the United Kingdom is the same price going for people in Canada, Qatar and Malaysia and is the same price we are offering Nigerians.”

Inije added that the price range for the courses were between 25 and 275 British pounds. The 25 pounds courses were short, foundational courses lasting six hours while the full courses last between twelve to sixteen weeks or 120 hours. The foundational courses attract an award at completion while the 275 pounds courses attract a certificate.

He said though the ideal price for the 25 and 275 pounds courses is 300 and 700 pounds respectively, the price of over 28 courses they are offering had been slashed because of the funding. He explained that the amount also covers the certificate to be awarded.

“Integrity, transparency, accountable are our watchword, we have nothing to hide. We are looking forward to have a robust relationship where we see our youths and university graduates take up these courses. These courses are not meant for only those who have gone to school but for everyone. Our target audience is from 14 years old and above. We have a course on employability skills,” he noted.

ECEWS executive director, Mr. Andy Eyo, said the partnership was a poverty alleviation strategy that would bring the required impact to the employed and unemployed, as well as build the country’s GDP level.

He stated that the programme would redirect the paths of many young persons who have taken the wrong paths because of their inability to further their education after the secondary level, and qualify fresh university graduates to fit into the labour market.

He said, “Creating this relationship with the skills network is one of our strategies to improve the quality of education in Nigeria. We believe that this partnership is going to bring the needed skills set to a lot of our unemployable population and even for the employed population, it is going to bring that required impact to make them more competent and fine tune their skill.

“The idea is to take qualitative education to our population and make them add value to our society and build our GDP levels to where it should be. We have many sequence of under employment, unemployment and we believe that processes like this will fit square pegs in square holes. A lot of our young people don’t have the opportunity to go to college, and unfortunately, our society does not have a clear direction for them. This programme is going to provide direction for such people and give them a UK based certification that would afford them the opportunity to earn salaries and get into employment that is secure and comfortable.

“We are going to work closely with all of these kinds of people across board, the government of Nigeria, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Communication and Technology as well to find various ways of fine tuning these. For us it is a big idea.”