National skills alignment: VP calls for end to fragmented youth interventions

Vice President Kashim Shettima has declared that the era of isolated and uncoordinated skills programmes is over.

Speaking at the opening of the National Skills and Industry Alignment Roundtable Series in Abuja on Tuesday, the Vice President articulated a new vision for a coherent national system designed to ensure that technical training leads directly to sustainable employment and economic growth.

Represented by the Deputy Chief of Staff to the President, Senator Ibrahim Hassan Hadejia, the Vice President argued that Nigeria’s primary challenge is not a lack of talent, but a persistent misalignment between the skills produced by training institutions and the actual demands of the labour market.

He observed that while millions of ambitious young Nigerians enter the workforce annually, the majority are funneled into informal and unstable jobs that do not fully drive national productivity.

To bridge this gap, the administration is rallying global development partners, including the European Union, to move beyond dialogue and toward deliberate, industry-led action.

The Vice President emphasized that job creation cannot be the sole responsibility of the state.

He called on the private sector to move beyond being mere employers and become co-creators of the workforce by clearly defining the competencies they require.

This structural shift is supported by the European Union, whose Head of Cooperation, Massimo De Luca, noted that current interventions like the 3MTT programme are being embedded within a broader production system to ensure skills are grown exactly where they are required.