New HRDC committees a welcome development

Mmegi Editor | Friday October 16, 2015 15:32

The new committees are; Transport and Logistics, Research and Innovation, Science and Technology, Education and Training, Public Sector, and Manufacturing.  The mandate for these committees will be to define the skills required for each sector and advise training institutions to respond accordingly.  It is our view that the committees will advise government on the skills needed, and whether to open borders to import skilled expatriates for skills transfer.

It is our wish that the committees be empowered and capacitated to identify raw talent at secondary schools.

Many should recall that some students who completed their senior secondary school education in the 1990s were greatly disadvantaged and that their talents have gone to waste. There were many students who were gifted in sciences and mathematics, but not in English language.

Because of limited university spaces at the time, and other factors such as lack of funds to supplement English language, they were condemned to the history rubbish bin.  Some of them chose careers they did not have passion for, such as teaching, the army and the police. 

As you read this, some of them are now Chibuku slaves and will never recover, while others have quit those jobs too early in their careers.  We acknowledge that changes have taken place between the 1990s and now, and there is proper monitoring of performance of students at every stage of their learning process.

This is why it is our view that the establishment of these committees is commendable and should not go unnoticed.  We hope that in the course of time, the HRDC will be in a position to report directly to Parliament and advise our legislators on laws, policies, and even regulations that are a barrier to human resource development in the country.  We also hope that lawmakers will see the HRDC as a very important stakeholder who should be thoroughly consulted whenever there is a proposed bill on skills development.

In fact, Parliament should amend its Standing Orders and allow these institutions to address MPs directly.

We appeal to learning institutions to also up their game and produce not just graduates, but workers who are disciplined, who conform to work ethics, are enthusiastic, innovative, and have positive attitudes toward work.  Stakeholders can make their input, but without good learning institutions, all efforts will have been for naught.

Today’s thought

“Some people today are wandering generalities instead of meaningful specifics because they have failed to discover and mine the wealth of potentials in them.”

 -Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha