The Vocational Skills Department (VSD) of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) has begun a one-month training of 100 people in Enugu state on Quick-fix Demand Driven Training Scheme (QDDTS) and Technocultural Crafts Training Scheme (TCTS).
The one month training will train the beneficiaries on bead-making, shoe-making, tye & dye, cosmetology, catering, Fasunato/turban-making, among others.
Flagging the training open, the Director General of NDE, Malam Abubakar Nuhu Fikpo, said the Technocultural Crafts Training was designed towards revamping the practice of indigenous cultural crafts as it was observed in the past.
Fikpo, represented by the Enugu state NDE coordinator, Mrs. Ifeoma Ezepue, said the Indigenous crafts were “receiving little attention from the younger generation, thereby risking extinction,” and encouraged the participants to take the training serious because of their multiplier effect which is training for life.
The DG noted that rather than show interest in cultural crafts, the youth preferred to preoccupy themselves with the Information Communication Technology, ICT.
Speaking at the occasion, the director of NDE’s VSD, represented by Igwesi Onyekwelu, told the participants that the training was very important and should be treated as such.
“What we have come here to do today is very important. It is a life changing exercise you have embarked upon. This will afford you the opportunity to discover your talents,” Onyekwelu said.
He said indigenous craft should not be left for the elderly alone but that the youths should key into it, adding that there were gains in skills acquisition.
