Akinwunmi Ambode
GE, the world’s Digital Industrial Company has announced a skill development partnership programme involving its GE Lagos Garage, the Lagos State Ministry of Wealth Creation and Employment and the Lagos State Technical and Vocational Education Board aimed at developing the skills of students in the State in advanced manufacturing.
The GE Garage Advanced Manufacturing programme will involve 20 final year students and five instructors from the five Government Technical Colleges in the State taking part in an intensive one-week training that will hone their skills in advanced manufacturing.
The selected technical colleges, spread across the state and under the supervision of the Lagos State Technical and Vocational Education Board are located in Ikotun, Ikorodu, Agidingbi, Ado-Soba and Epe. The programme takes place at the LASTVEB HQ School Complex, Ikeja GRA. The programme commenced on Monday July 24 and ends on Friday, July 28.
During the programme, the students will be exposed to cutting-edge technology, experiencing GE’s Digital Industrial leadership in shaping modern manufacturing. They will also learn how such readily available technology can help their future businesses.
To facilitate this, GE has set up a temporary scaled version of its Garage at the venue. This comprises select equipment like 3D printers, CNC mills, among other equipment. As a guide, greater emphasis will be placed on Additive Manufacturing, 3-D printing, CAD designing, rapid prototype development, basic subtractive manufacturing using CNC mills to demonstrate mould making; and basic business knowledge. The program will be run by GE Garage engineers and instructors to enhance the students’ current capabilities whilst helping them develop new skill sets.
Speaking on the development, the Director, Communications & Public Affairs, GE Africa, Patricia Obozuwa said the initiative was aimed at promoting advanced manufacturing and technology in the modern work environment by extending the GE Lagos Garage entrepreneurship programme through LASTVEB to its colleges.
In this vein, she said, a condensed version of the current GE Garage curriculum will expose the technical college students to latest developments in advanced manufacturing, taking into consideration the student’s vocational studies exposure and their area of specialization, to ensure proper focus and impact.
Obozuwa restated GE’s commitment to empowering people through technology, pointing out that this was the very reason behind the GE Garage initiative. “We are committed to supporting skills development in Nigeria, and across Africa. We see ourselves as partners in building a sustainable future for Africa, and we believe that partnerships such as this are necessary if we are to overcome Africa’s economic challenges,” she said.
Speaking in the same vein, the Lagos State Commissioner for Wealth Creation and Employment, Mr. Babatunde Durosinmi-Etti commended GE Nigeria for their efforts in transferring such important skills to Lagosians. He said the collaborative initiative is in line with the ministry’s mission to promote and sustain entrepreneurship and employment through effective use of wealth creation strategies and resources by collaborating with all stakeholders.
According to him, the ministry was established in fulfilment of the promise of His Excellency, the Governor of Lagos State, Akinwunmi Ambode, to address the unemployment crisis in the State.
“It pursuit of this mandate to create employment, the ministry came up with similar initiatives like the ‘Graduate Internship Programme,’ a 3-month paid Internship Scheme for graduates who have been unemployed for a minimum of one year after National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). The Programme is designed to give candidates an opportunity to develop employability skills which are often vital in securing employment,” he said.
Also speaking, the Executive Secretary of the Lagos State Technical and Vocational Education Board (LASTVEB), Mrs. Omolara Erogbogbo expressed the belief that programmes such as this will go a long way in bridging the unemployment gap as well as addressing skills deficit in the country. She highlighted the importance of vocational education to Nigeria’s socio-economic well-being, saying that the era when vocational education was believed to be undertaken by school drop-outs and pushovers was over.