Impact of Skill Acquisition on Employment Generation in Nigeria: Evidence from the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Jos, Nigeria

The acquisition of skills has been globally recognised as a legitimate tool towards employment creation and the sustained economic development. The study examined the role of skill acquisition on employment generation in Nigeria with respect to the Industrial Training Fund (ITF). The analysis of the data was based on descriptive statistics in terms of tables and simple percentages, whereas the objective was verified at a significance level of 5% using the Generalised Linear Model (GLM). The outcome showed that the involvement in ITF programmes and relevance of skills were significant in terms of employment creation that were positively and statistically relevant with coefficient of 0.3641 and 0.1445 respectively, whilst technical proficiency, soft skills, and industry alignment were significantly not relevant with coefficient of 0.131, -0.1655 and 0.580 respectively. The research falls to the conclusion that formal attendance at skills acquisition schemes like the ones adopted by the ITF, has a significant positive impact on the employment opportunities, creation of entrepreneurial possibilities, and income generation of the beneficiaries. Nevertheless, bottlenecks of poor facilities, little connections with the private sector, and poor alignment of industries still hinder the best results. The research thus suggests that the government and other stakeholders ought to enhance the institutional capacity of the ITF by providing sufficient funds, frequent review of the curriculum and the close working relations with industries. Moreover, after the training programmes like business start-up grants, mentorship programmes, and access to microfinance programmes are to be institutionalised to translate the learnt skills into long-term self-employment and inclusive national development.