The Director of the Institute for Industrial Technology (IIT) in Lagos, David Okechukwu, has called for greater investment in technical and vocational education, saying Nigeria needs a skilled and ethically grounded workforce to drive industrial development and address youth unemployment.
Okechukwu made the call while speaking on the state of the country’s technical and vocational education, youth unemployment, and the impact of IIT, which marked its 25th anniversary last year, stressing that technical skills remained critical to the country’s economic transformation.
According to him, Nigeria’s industrial sector could not afford to entrust expensive equipment to inadequately trained personnel, as poor technical competence could result in equipment breakdown, business losses and reduced productivity.
He said the institute’s approach combined technical training with ethical and moral education to ensure that young people not only acquired skills but also understood how to deploy them responsibly.
“When you give a young Nigerian a skill, he can do many things with that skill, but you have to give him the ethical foundation to be able to use that skill well,” Okechukwu said.
He explained that IIT had developed a model that combines technical education with multi-skilling, industry exposure, entrepreneurship and ethical training.
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According to him, the multi-skilled approach is designed to make graduates more versatile in the labour market, enabling them to diagnose and solve problems that cut across different technical areas.
He said students also undergo an advanced learning phase involving in-company training, which he described as similar to an internship but with closer supervision by the institute.
“Students have to go through the advanced learning phase, which is the in-company training. They have to be properly monitored. They report back to the school so that we can get a feel for how they are performing,” he said.
Okechukwu added that the institute continued to support its graduates through its alumni association, including assistance with employment opportunities.
He said some graduates had secured employment even before completing their industry placements, while others had gone on to establish businesses, occupy management positions or pursue further education.
On youth unemployment, the IIT director said technical education could help address the problem by equipping young people with skills to provide services and establish enterprises rather than relying exclusively on salaried employment.
He, however, stressed that technical competence must be complemented by business and entrepreneurship training.
“People have to start their own enterprises, start their own businesses, and you can’t just start something without having the skill to start that,” he said.
Okechukwu also called for a more strategic approach to expanding technical education across Nigeria, arguing that simply replicating the same training institution in every state might not produce the desired result.
He said training programmes should be designed around the economic activities and industrial potential of individual states.
“If you say replicating each state, it’s not about putting it in each state. It is about what this state is good for, what are the businesses that thrive in this state,” he said.
He suggested that states with strong agricultural, industrial or craft-based economies should develop technical programmes tailored to those sectors.
On the cost of technical education, Okechukwu said the sector required substantial investment because effective training depended on equipment, workshops and competent instructors.
He disclosed that some equipment in the institute’s automation laboratory cost about $60,000 per unit, underscoring the financial requirements involved in providing practical technical education.
He also called for greater capacity utilisation and more efficient deployment of infrastructure rather than relying solely on large campuses and extensive land.
The director said regulators also had an important role to play in creating an environment where institutions providing effective technical education could expand and contribute to national development.
He acknowledged ongoing efforts by government agencies to promote technical skills, including the development of the National Skills Qualification framework, but urged stronger collaboration between government and institutions already delivering technical training.
Okechukwu further disclosed that IIT’s model had attracted interest beyond Nigeria, noting that the institute had supported the establishment of a technical school in Nairobi, Kenya.
He said the institute’s experience had also attracted international attention, including interest from Germany in accessing skilled workers trained in Nigeria.
Earlier, a policy researcher, who participated in the discussion, raised questions about the scalability of IIT’s model and whether it could be expanded across Nigeria and other African countries.
Responding, Okechukwu reiterated that expansion should be based on the specific economic needs of each location rather than simply reproducing the same model everywhere.
He said partnerships with organisations interested in education and skills development could provide opportunities to scale the model.
On the role of the African Development Foundation, Okechukwu clarified that IIT was initiated by the US African Development Foundation and distinguished it from the Nigerian organisation with a similar name.
He said the foundation also initiated what became Lagos Business School before the institution was later ceded to the Pan-Atlantic University Foundation.
Okechukwu said the foundation continued to support IIT because of the need to change the perception that technical education was meant for people who could not pursue conventional academic education.
He argued that technically trained personnel would be needed to operate and maintain sophisticated equipment in sectors including manufacturing, automobile production and refineries.
He said the challenge extended beyond providing equipment, as institutions also needed competent instructors and enough students willing to pursue technical careers.
“People don’t want to come for technical education,” he said, adding that perceptions around blue-collar work remained a significant obstacle to the expansion of the sector.
He called for a change in societal attitudes towards technical careers, noting that skilled technical workers play an important role in industrial production and maintenance.
On the adoption of artificial intelligence in technical education, Okechukwu said IIT was considering how emerging technologies could be incorporated into its training, while noting that the institute’s primary mandate was technical education rather than research.
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