THE SKILLUP INITIATIVE

SkillUp is an Industry-Backed Technical Skills Competency Development initiative focused on developing practical skills (for immediate absorption by the industry) over and above certificates. It is an initiative in partnership with the Lagos State Government under the auspices of LASTVEB, international technical vocational qualifications awarding bodies such as City and Guilds of London and the Industry.

The population of Nigerian citizens aged 30 and below is believed to be above 60% of its total population estimated at 150million. These statistics reflect the existence of a huge labour force, which if skilfully harnessed could be of great benefit to sustainable national and regional development.

The presence of a well-trained and highly skilled youth population in any economy has direct impact on entrepreneurship/wealth creation, which in turn leads to a decline in unemployment. If Nigeria is to fully maximise the use of its natural/physical resources, and emerge as a strong emerging economy as evidenced in China, Malaysia, India and Brazil, it must pay attention to skills development/acquisition and entrepreneurial training. The young people of Nigeria must have access to relevant, up to date and quality competency based training that harnesses their skills and prepares them for the labour market.

SkillUp seeks to integrate an end-to-end solution; it begins by capturing the needs of the specific Industry in the design and rollout of its skills training and plugging back the output of the training into the Industry. This synergy stimulates the local economies of the nation by providing our youths the opportunity to acquire relevant skills and skills upgrade that successfully plugs them within industrial value-chain to offer improved service offerings.

With the current dearth of a sufficiently skilled workforce in Nigeria to meet employers' needs, skilled labour has had to be imported from other countries. SkillUp is therefore a welcome intervention and response to supporting local employers by addressing gaps in course content development (curriculum etc.) competency tests and standardised certification. All our activities will improve learning outcomes for students, enhance the career progression potential and create a wider variety of industry-wide opportunities.