Coscharis Motors bridges manpower gap in Nigeria’s automobile industry

…Trains automobile technicians

Coscharis Motors has concluded plans to train automobile technicians as part of its effort to bridge the professional manpower gap in Nigeria’s automobile industry.

The automobile company reopened its training academy to give a one-year training programme in automobile technical engineering, a free-of-charge training programme at its CG Eko, Ikeja outlet as part of its corporate social responsibility strategy.

Cosmas Junior Maduka, executive director of Aftersales and Special Duties at Coscharis Group, said the main objective of the academy is to deliver human resources to fill the vacuum created by the dearth of professional technicians in the automobile industry.

According to him, professional automobile technicians are needed to support the fast, growing automotive industry and minimise foreign capital flight resulting from engaging expatriates.

The Coscharis Academy debuted in 2013 as a public-private initiative in partnership with the Lagos State Government and has successfully graduated over a hundred male and female trainees.

These graduates have either been absorbed into Coscharis and other automobile companies or become self-employed.

“Coscharis has always been driven by its Corporate Vision Statement that focuses on ”building an institution that is timeless in its relevance” and to remain timeless, we needed to plough back resources in local human capital development that translates to supporting the government human capacity drive and equipping interested but financially challenged employable market; which in turn, contribute to the overall economy of Nigeria,” explained Maduka.

Omowunmi Wale-Okusi, group head of Human Resources & Administration at Coscharis Group, said the academy admitted 25 trainees for the current diet and they are expected to graduate in October 2025 at the completion of the three months of theoretical and nine months of practical training spread over four quarters of with an industrial training experience at the Coscharis Head Office in Awoyaya, Lagos.

The five top performers will receive automatic employment at Coscharis, which has been the tradition ab initio.

“Coscharis Group believes in equal opportunity. Therefore, while admission and training come at no cost, the programme is designed to reflect diversity, equity and inclusion of individuals interested in acquiring competency in the automotive technical field,” she said.

She listed the objective of the project to include eradicating poverty and enhancing a decent workplace while creating economic growth in line with the Sustainable Development Goal.

She said that candidates must have a flair for technical skill development and must not necessarily be graduates of tertiary institutions.