Bukola Afeni
The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) hinted that the Federal Government had drafted a policy that requires ICT knowledge before graduation.
The Executive Secretary, TETFund, Sonny Echono stated this at the 2023 Train the Trainer ICT Capacity Workshop for Beneficiary Institutions in North Central Zone in Abuja.
He disclosed that digital literacy was necessary as the country was not producing enough skills and manpower that would service the country’s population.
” There has been a mismatch between employers and skills produced by graduates, hence the need to close the gap. In today’s world, a graduate must be digitally savvy. Even our teaching staff, non-teaching staff, and management staff, including the majority of the workforce, do not possess these digital skills”, he said.
Echono said the importance of digital technology as a way of advancing research of the beneficiary institutions and the nation at large, cannot be over-emphasized.
”We 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 to enhance our research.
“We pledge the commitment of the fund to sustain the initiative to ensure every institution is globally competitive, and has the prerequisite skills to compete favourably in the committee of nations”, he said.
The Lead Consultant, Fides Et Ratio Academy Limited, Mr Paul Chukwuma, said young people need to engage in ICT skills to become relevant in the global space.
” We intend to see young technology companies coming on top five in the list.
To get this done, we must emphasize ICT skills and no more on theoretical skills, because the university is suffering from the connection between industries and the citadel of knowledge,” he said.
