WorldStage— In order to train Nigerian young people to work with artificial intelligence and not compete with it on routine tasks, the Federal Ministry of Education assured it will deepen industry participation in curriculum development and certification, expand market-relevant TVET and digital-skills pathways, strengthen accreditation and quality assurance, and improve the connection between institutions, training providers and employers.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Education, Dr. Rauf Tunji Alausa on the sideline of the ongoing UNGA meeting in New York, United States of America.
Alausa reaffirmed the Ministry’s commitment to aligning education reform with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, particularly its focus on human capital development, job creation, skills acquisition and inclusive economic growth.
These efforts form part of the Ministry’s role on the supply side of the National Talent Export Programme, which supports the national ambition of creating one million export-linked jobs and 10 million globally certified Nigerians by 2030. The Ministry is also leading the Supply Technical Working Group under the programme.
He said the emphasis was increasingly on skills that complement technology, including judgement, creativity, domain knowledge, data literacy, cybersecurity, cloud services, software development, customer success, quality assurance and AI-enabled operations.
Through the Digital Training Academy, the Federal Government is partnering with global learning providers, including Coursera and Pluralsight, to provide 32,000 Nigerians with free access to professional digital and technology training.
The programme covers high-demand and emerging fields including product management, cloud computing, cybersecurity, information technology automation, artificial intelligence and machine learning, agentic artificial intelligence, financial technology, parallel computing, quantum computing and natural language processing.
The Student Venture Capital Grant is also supporting students in STEMM disciplines to translate innovative ideas into viable enterprises, strengthening the connection between education, innovation and enterprise.
Given the pace of technological change, the Minister said Nigeria’s education system must also enable young people to learn, unlearn and retrain throughout their careers.
The Minister therefore challenged international employers, Business Process Outsourcing operators, investors and development partners to move beyond expressions of interest towards practical partnerships and investable talent pipelines.
He urged employers to define their skills requirements, co-design training programmes, provide work-based learning, recognise credible Nigerian certifications, recruit from Nigerian talent pools and provide feedback on workforce performance.
BPO operators and investors, he added, should establish and expand delivery centres beyond Nigeria’s largest commercial cities while supporting training infrastructure, connectivity, quality systems and management capability.
Development partners can support the effort through scalable certification, instructor development, inclusion of women and underserved communities, labour-market intelligence and outcome measurement that tracks employment rather than training numbers alone.
International institutional partnerships and centres of excellence in Nigerian institutions would further strengthen global linkages, benchmarking and knowledge transfer.
“Under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, our commitment is clear: we will continue to invest in the skills, knowledge and innovation of our young people and build an education system that gives Nigerian talent the capacity and confidence to compete and succeed anywhere in the world.”
The Minister said the commitment would remain focused on building an education and skills system that connects Nigerian talent to opportunity, strengthens Nigeria’s position in the global economy and enables more young Nigerians to build sustainable careers at home and around the world.
