AWKA 鈥 The Skill Empowerment and Development Centre (SEDC) of the Anambra State Polytechnic Mgbakwu has been inaugurated.
This is geared towards en-hancing the quality and capacity of manpower of graduates from the institution.
The Director of the Southeast Zone of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Dr. Ngozi Okelekwe, who inaugurat-ed the center in Mgbakwu near Awka, described it as one of the best among its peers.
Okelekwe congratulated the institution for being one of the beneficiaries of Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) of NBTE.
She said trainees would receive skill-based certificates known as National Skill Qualification after undergoing stringent quality as-sessment procedures.
According to her, the Federal Government had identified 25 skill gaps which were role-specific un-der TVET and called on Nigerian youths to key into the programme.
The Rector of the Polytechnic, Dr. Njideka Rita Chiekezie, said the opening of SEDC was an ad-dition to the growing profile of the institution.
Chiekezie said the objective was to produce graduates with one degree and two skills in line with the 鈥1Youth 2Skills鈥 initiative of Governor Chukwuma Soludo鈥檚 administration.
She said the certificate would be NBTE-certified and applicable anywhere in the country while welcoming the partnership offer from the Anambra government.
The Centre has facilities for eight skill sets including Cos-metology, Welding/Fabrication, Bakery/Confectionery, Media/ Photography, ICT/Solar Installa-tion, Block Moulding/Brick Lay-ing, Tailoring/Textile, and Green House Technology.
鈥淲e are happy that the Com-missioner for Youth Empower-ment has said that they are ready to partner with us in the area of the startup pack,鈥 he said.
Also speaking, Mr. Patrick Aghamba, Commissioner for Youth Empowerment, applauded the institution for expanding its scope of vocational training and encouraged the management to align with his Ministry to enjoy the accruing benefits