Vice-President Kashim Shettima has hailed Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani for pioneering the establishment of Nigeria’s first State Council on Skills, describing it as a groundbreaking step toward building a skilled and future-ready workforce.
Shettima gave the commendation on Tuesday at the 7th meeting of the National Council on Skills (NCS), held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He urged other states to emulate Kaduna’s example by prioritising skills development as a key driver of job creation and human capital growth.
“The era of operating in silos is over. We must embed collaboration into curriculum development and funding. This is about the artisan in Kaura Namoda, the mid-career worker in Ebute-Metta, and the technical colleges that must become true centres of excellence,” he said.
The vice-president reaffirmed the Tinubu administration’s commitment to a national skills revolution, which he described as central to the Renewed Hope Agenda. He lauded Kaduna’s admission of over 30,000 students into the Kaduna Vocational and Skills Development Institute as proof of its strong commitment to empowering citizens with relevant skills.
Also speaking, Minister of State for Education, Dr Yusuf Sununu, commended Kaduna for facilitating the recent inauguration of the Institute of Vocational Training and Skills Development by President Tinubu. He said efforts were ongoing to reposition technical colleges nationwide to focus exclusively on vocational and technical courses.
Shettima urged members of the NCS to support a unified national framework for skills development, warning that fragmented efforts would undermine progress.
“We cannot build a future-ready workforce on a foundation of division,” he said.
The NCS is a multi-sectoral body created to coordinate and promote skills development across federal, state, and private sector institutions.
