On Thursday, Mrs Sarah Alawode, the Federal Housing Controller in Lagos State, said that the training center for artisans was being revived to bridge the skills shortage in the construction industry and counter unemployment.
Alawode told the Nigerian News Agency during an inspection of the ministry ‘s workshop in Onikan that a request for a vision had been sent to his headquarters in Abuja.
She said that all government furniture and buildings were managed within the workshop by the ministry ‘s staff until the transfer of some ministries to FCT, Abuja.
She said most of the old staff were aged and retired, so it was appropriate to convert the facility into a training center to supplement an existing one in the state.
In the past, she mentioned crafts performed by ministry workers in the workshop for government projects that included tailoring, production of window blinds, roofing, production of furniture, and bricklaying.
Alawode said the government was considering a plan to revive the workshop and use it to train artisans to bridge the building industry skills shortage.
She said it was also about creating jobs to tackle the employment of young people in the world.
“Many of our craftsmen have retired and we don’t have new hands.
“We have made a proposal to our headquarters in Abuja that the whole compound should be turned to a training school where members of the public will be trained in arts, craft and other skills,” she said.
She said that a part of the facility which used to house the office of the controller of housing in the 1980s and 1990s would be used as the hostel for its training school in Yaba.
“That storey building over there is being proposed as hostel for students and their teachers, for our training school in Yaba.
“That place is producing students from carpentry, fashion designing and so on,” she said.
She said that the facility had enough space and could accommodate 150 trainees from various fields.
The controller added that government would replace the obsolete machines and install new technologies to train bricklayers, plumbers, electricians, tailors, and carpenters.
NAN reports that the controller inspected the Timber Unallocated stores, machine shop, allocated stores, carpentry section and other facilities in the workshop area.
She urged the ministry’s staff to be diligent in handling the affairs of the workshop.
Source: NNN
