Nigeria moves to bridge digital skill gap

…As NBTE, CPN create new occupational standards

The Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN) has partnered with the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) to create 35 new National Occupational Standards (NOS).

The standards aim to bridge the digital skills gap and transform the future of ICT education in Nigeria.

Speaking during a validation workshop on NOS in ICT in Abuja on Wednesday, Muhammed Aliyu, registrar, the Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria, said the digital skills would enable entrepreneurial development, job creation, employment and national development. This, he said, was in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu.

Aliyu said that the CPN has been granted the status as an awarding body for all information and communication technology-related skills under the Nigerian Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF).

According to him, candidates who would be trained using these new national standards would be able to work, develop the local economy, and be available for outsourced opportunities.

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“Information technology is a dynamic profession, innovations and developments are taking place daily globally, this necessitated our foray into studying the current national occupational standards in ICT to ensure it is in line with the current trends in IT practice.

“We identified some gaps and developed standards for new areas in ICT like Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, UI-UX to ensure Nigerians acquire ICT skills qualifications that position them to compete globally and relevant to an employer of labour in the IT industry,” he stated.

Aliyu said the council understood the importance of stakeholders in the IT ecosystem for this validation exercise and appreciated them for creating the time to attend the workshop despite the short notice.

“As the awarding body, we are here with the sector state council and also the regulator – the NBTE, to validate all 35, which is one of the most amazing moments because we have 35 different NOS that we are validating.

“What we intend to achieve is to address the digital skills gap in the country. These particular skills that we are trying to validate will be the standard upon which every other will now be based in the country.”