FG to Offer 6 Months Free Training to Address Job Vacancies, Says Alausa

Kuni Tyessi in Abuja

The Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, has said that the Federal Government will offer a six-month free skills training to Nigerians to service industries in order to address the two million job vacancies in the country, as revealed by the 

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

He said there exists 150,000 vacancies in AI and machine learning, about 120,000 vacancies in cloud computing, while 60,000 vacancies exist worldwide in national language processing.

This is even as he said they will integrate 10 million out-of-school children into schools, and will educate an additional one million girls.

Alausa, who stated this at the third edition of the 2025 Ministerial Press Briefing Session in Abuja on Thursday, also disclosed that President Bola Tinubu has approved N120 billion as a start up for students’ entrepreneurial mode.

He said: “Today, based on UNESCO data, there are 650,000 vacancies in software development methodologies, about 280,000 vacancies in cyber security and about 160,000 vacancies in IT automation.

“Add that together, we have almost 2 million job vacancies out there. So what we’re doing with Digital Training Academy is working with trainers now, that will offer six months to people, young engineers, to get this training.”

He noted that the ministry is putting in place measures to encourage Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) to meet the areas of need of the country, adding that: “We are doing this through our Digital Training Academy (DTA) to give students skills to service the industries.

“We, as a government, we will pay for their internet services, pay for their certification — Cisco certification, End of Career certification, and Google certification,” he said. 

Alausa said this strategy would give Nigerians new digital skills that they need to stand out in the world.

He added that the training would be launched on or before June 2025.

Speaking on vocational and technical training in schools, the minister explained that President Tinubu had approved N120 billion as a start up for students’ entrepreneurial mode.

He said his ministry is presently focusing on the value chain in technical education where practical education would be given to train artisans.

He explained that a dual mode of training would be introduced, which would allow students to spend three days in school, one day for gigantic training and one day in the workshop. 

While noting that the ministry was working on a clear strategy to improve the country’s educational sector, the minister said the ministry is committed to increase access, improve quality and enhance education systems for foundational learning.

He said: “Between now and 2027, we are going to reconstruct 195,000 classrooms across the nation. With regards to infrastructure, between now and 2027, we will need to raise 195,000 classrooms across the nation. We will install 28,000 toilets and 22,900 boreholes across other schools in the country.

“We will construct about 7,000 new classrooms. And we will do this with the provision of learning and teaching materials by organising 103 million textbooks.”

Alausa also disclosed that N40 billion has been approved by the president to commence work on the uncompleted National Library site to support academic and research needs.

He added that the ministry had initiated a key committee on national education policy, national language policy and national almajiri policy reviews.

Meanwhile, the minister has blamed Nigerian lawmakers for the proliferation of tertiary institutions in the country, saying with almost 200 bills pending in the National Assembly, there is a growing concern that the system is becoming overwhelmed.

Alausa, who equally stated this at the 2025 Ministerial Press Briefing Session said: “We need to stop this from happening. There’s so much pressure on the president. We have to at least be sensitive to it as well.

“They want to show that they’re working. We know they’re working. But then we have enough assets, we have enough opportunities out there for students to go to universities.

“Even though we have a lot of them, the capacity for a university to admit is not there. What we need to do now is to renew the capacities so that we can offer more viable courses to our citizens. Today, if you care to know, we have 64 federal universities, 67 state universities and 147 private universities.

“If you look at the entire enrollment together, the private universities account for just 7.5% of total undergraduate enrollment. I’ll tell you the meaning of the number. The total number of undergraduate enrollment today is just about 875,000, which at least is fairly low.

“We have universities with less than 1,000 undergraduate students, and there’s this intense demand for more universities to be opened. We have to stop that,” he added.

He added that the enrolment rate does not commensurate with the recent number of universities, hence the need to look at the institution’s capacity.

Speaking on specialised universities, the minister appealed to the institutions to focus on their mandate. 

According to him, there is a need to reduce the number of non-technical courses offered in specialised universities and instead make them available in conventional universities.

Speaking on the speculation of scrapping the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETfund), he said the education tax fund would continue indefinitely, rather than being subsidised by 2030 as previously proposed.

“What we need to do now is to begin to open up more resources to develop infrastructures, build engineering workshops, and build laboratories in these universities,” the minister said.

He said the government must also recruit international standard teachers so that they begin to get the universities to deliver high quality of education that will be known throughout the country. 

“When it comes to the education tax, I think a tax fund is going to be furthered now because I’ve heard some information in the new tax bill about tax funds being subsidised by the year 2030.

“So in four years from now, in 2030, the tax reform council and committee will go to the National Assembly and I can report to you now that tax funds will continue into eternity,” he said.