TECHDIGEST – The unresolved disagreement between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the federal government weighs heavily on Nigerian youth out of school.  While some have taken to vocational skills others still lay idle in the discomfort of the economy finding it hard to support themselves and family.

In light of enjoying the free time created by the strike, digital learning has entrenched so wide for many to unravel their potential and access the web of technology for self-development.

It is an indisputable aphorism that “an idle mind is a devil’s workshop”. This continual strike by university lecturers with no compromise from both parties anytime soon can push many “stay-at-home” students into heinous acts.

At this juncture, most students are not practically engaged in ongoing digital skill acquisition initiatives/programs organised by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and other stakeholders in Nigeria’s tech ecosystem.

In all honesty, the strike might turn out beneficial to some students because they have used the time to engage in virtual studies and digital skill development while others still struggle to fit into the digital trend due to financial challenges and others.

Even at this, delay in academics, long reversal of projects, university clearance, mobilization into national service, and the overburdened labour market are many of the challenges Nigerian students foresee within the academic terrain.

NITDA in its effort to digitalise the nation and de-institutionalize learning had developed digital channels for free e-learning through the NITDA Academy for Research and Training (NART) to build capacity, develop skills, and reduce unemployment in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector.

The platform, in operation since 2020 with fully operational centers across the country, has been a blessing to promote e-learning in the country. In addition to bridging the skill gap between industry and academia, the program is also promoting a more inclusive ICT-driven for various segments of the Nigerian populace.

NART was developed to boost the capacity of Nigerians with courses that will help them to be creative and find their calling in the labour market.

Propagation of digital literacy or technological knowledge is a strategic effort by NITDA to engage many Nigerians to acquire the skills that will help them harness the abundant opportunities to become job providers and wealth creators. Also, it will build capacity and develop skills of Nigerians in emerging IT sectors and reduce the unemployment rate by bridging the widening skills gap in the sector.

The fate of Nigerian students during this strike is reflective of the saying “when two elephants fight the grass suffers”. The unique difference is that there is a platform (NART) for students to engage in the attainment of productive skills with no financial challenge.

Thus, NITDA provision for self-development and skills acquisition online or at their community digital centres can be described as a digital solution to curb the effect of idleness on students during the strike.

The NART e-learning facilities and vocational training programs are scheduled into four categories. They are Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) Training, Students Training, General Training, and Digital skills are like realms of digital abilities for youth with preference to their disciplines to help them function better and achieve self-employment at the end of the training.

NART’s resolve to increase access to learning opportunities and enhance the general quality of teaching/learning has continued to keep its training free, accessible, and impactful for students and youth in skills required in their discipline, profession, or career.

With hundreds of courses available, the e-learning resources have helped many to envision a realistic future of gainful entrepreneurial and digital competence. For students with little digital knowledge of the internet, programs like digital literacy, introduction to Packet Tracer, Entrepreneurship Courses, and many more are basics to knowing the web of technologies.

Over 47 different courses can be accessed on the NART website, and there is virtually every course that a student can delve into and learn. Introduction to computer science for lawyers is another interesting platform for upcoming legal practitioner’s to digitalise the profession and become self-competent before post-graduation.

READ ALSO : Why Twitter Investor Sues Elon Musk

NART’S achievements include training of more than 26,000 active students and over 200 women in ICT, provision of tools at the end of the training, development of tech startups, and efficiency in artificial intelligence, among others. These have helped many Nigerians to spend their time meaningfully and get trained on new technologies that will build and develop their capacity in the tech world.

While out of the realm of academics, learning must never stop. In this regard, the Director-General of NITDA, Mallam Kashifu Inuwa, recently challenged Universities in the country to devote greater attention to entrepreneurship training to produce graduates that will create job opportunities, rather than become job seekers.

Considering the large number of young Nigerians graduating yearly, NITDA must strengthen collaboration with Nigeria University to mandate students to partake in one or two courses that can serve as industrial training in digital communication to widen their scope of knowledge beyond their course of study.

Again, as part of NITDA’s agenda to foster entrepreneurship training and create more jobs, both tertiary and vocational institutions should raise awareness to encourage virtual learning, building innovations, and developing digital skills among students and lecturers. This will enable Nigeria to produce more job creators and solution providers in no distant future.

It is impactful to be able to learn in the comfort of digital devices and be certified in a course/s in capacity building. With over 20 free training centers in Nigeria, the opportunities are available and awaiting more youths to delve into. With set priorities and digital education, the breach in academic activities due to the ongoing strike will not be so wearisome to students when they are gainfully engaged.

A society with multiple dimensions to learning always produces the right thinking, visionary and effective leaders. ASUU in its fight to be heard does not have to burn off the intelligence of students but should enable them to engage in numerous knowledge-building opportunities created by the federal government.

Zeenat O. Sambo writes from Wuye District Abuja

The post ASUU Strike: Opportunity for Students’ Engagement in NITDA-NART Programmes appeared first on Tech Digest News.

TECHDIGEST – NITDA Academy for Research and Training (NART) is arguably one of the best IT academies for training and skills acquisition in the world today. The Academy has been providing robust online training and research opportunities for many within and outside the shores of Nigeria, even though, the research arm of the academy is yet to be fully developed.

As a baby of circumstance and a proof to the saying; ‘in every adversity is a corresponding opportunity’, the NART was conceived and established during the COVID-19 lockdown when businesses and education institutions were on total standstill.

This rare ability to detect opportunity in adversity can only be sighted by creative and innovative minds such as the ones the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has enjoyed in recent times since the emergence of Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami), the current Minister for Communications and Digital Economy on the national radar. He was the immediate past Director General of NITDA and the brain behind the new normal at the Agency.

While taking a clue from the Minister and former DG, the current Director General of NITDA and his very experienced and dynamic management staff were quick to recognize the fact that education and skill acquisition are the best legacy and bedrock of sustainable socio-economic growth and development of any nation, and which cannot be allowed to suffer under any circumstances, almost spontaneously responded to the lockdown debacle with the creation of NART.

According to the Director General of NITDA, Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, CCIE, the establishment of the NITDA Academy for Research and Training is one of the best thing to have happened to Nigeria during the pandemic. Leading his dynamic team of experts, Abdullahi bequeathed to Nigerians a world class academy to keep everyone busy during the COVID-19 lockdown.

This innovation, which has accelerated the growth of IT in the country, is not only ingenious but equally captivating, going by the instant success the academy has recorded from inception and the acceptability it has enjoyed from far and near.

No doubt the Academy has been meeting up with the objectives for which it was conceived, and these includes but not limited to complementing the efforts of Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria especially when it comes to providing Information Technology related education.

NART is doing this by focusing on developing marketable workforce with skills and knowledge that will compliment other efforts from various quarters. All of these are aimed at accelerating the sustainable digital economy drive of the government.

Constructively, the academy employs a hybrid training strategy using the Pedagogical and andragogical learning techniques to get the best experience out of its enrollees.

According to Merriam-Webster, pedagogical is the “art, science, or profession of teaching; especially education”, this definition covers many aspect of teaching methods which includes feedback and assessment.

Pedagogical skills includes capacity to plan, initiate, lead and develop education and teaching in a way that connect teaching to research in the subject of interest.

On the contrary, the andragogical learners are “self-directed”, they enter the programme with great diversity of experience and are ready to learn when they experience the need to know or do something.

They are usually motivated by internal self-esteem. Such was the strategic combination that goes into planning the NART academy.

Capacity building and skills development is a strategic pillar in NITDA’s Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan (SRAP 2021-2024) and this was clearly given a thought when planning the academy with objective to allow participants upgrade their knowledge of IT and be abreast of emerging trends in IT programming and systems.

As a solution provider, the Academy was designed to address and bridge the existing gap between academia-industry research dichotomy by turning most of the academic research that has been gathering dust in most of our tertiary institutions across the country into a productive industry tools for socio-economic development, especially the ones that focuses on addressing prioritized national challenges such as security, digital service promotion, innovation and entrepreneurship among others.

NART is a world class learning platform that has employed the Dick and Carey instructional design approach to ensure effective learning outcomes. It becomes quite clear that the management of NITDA is vigorously pursuing effective and sustainable solutions to build capacity and skills of Nigerians in IT generally and emerging technologies in particular with the aim to drastically reduce the unemployment rate in the country.

By this method, NITDA is strategically getting our young population busy and engaged through information technology by exploiting the compatibility between youthfulness and technology.

Aside the academic and research programme is the vocational training which the agency has developed with newly formed curriculums. This vocational training centre is playing a central role in preparing young Nigerian for work by developing their skills while responding to the labour market needs.

Similarly, the Agency, in line with the Digital Literacy and skills pillar of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy, NDEPS, is launching a nationwide ‘Digital States Initiative’, DSI. This initiative is aimed at equipping Nigerian Youths with the necessary digital literacy skills that can facilitate the acceleration of Nigeria’s transition into a digital economy.

The projection of this programme, which is on-going nationwide, according to NITDA through NART, is to train about 540 youths from each states of the federation and FCT. This is being taken in phases with the recent conclusion of the 2nd phase registration, as widely advertised in the media from June 7th – 18th 2021, which comprises Katsina, Kaduna, Borno, Bauchi, Niger, Nasarawa, Ekiti, Oyo, Imo, Bayelsa and Abia states.

Selected participants from these states will receive strategic training in Digital Marketing, Productivity Tools, Content Creation, among others.

This intervention will empower many youths with intermediate digital skills that will be needed to drive the digital economy transformation in Nigeria.

Lucky Nigerian youths, through this training, will receive globally required and marketable skills to increase their employability and productivity to compete in the global employment market. The content creation segment of the training will promote online businesses especially on social media platforms with huge potentials for Innovation Driven Enterprises, IDE.

What made NART a global brand is the partnership it had with established international IT corporations such as Huawei, CISCO, Oracle and Harvard training institutes. The Academy is currently equipped with four categories of trainees, namely: MDAs category, Students category, General category and Digital skills category.

Each of these categories have specialized courses imbedded in them. For instance, the MDAs category showcases courses like; Introduction to Cyber security, HCIA-Cloud computing, 5G Overview – Mobile Communication Evolution, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Foundations-2020 Certified Associate Certification, Introduction to Packet Tracer, to mention just but few.

The best part in all of these is the fact that all these sophisticated, quality and world-class standard trainings and skills acquisition are ABSOLUTELY FREE OF CHARGE! Over 67 courses with more than 55,124 active training sessions, under the guide of over 10 instructors and in excess of 57, 911 active students, NART is indeed next to none in the continent and arguably in the world.

With this, the ball in now firmly in the courts of parents and guidance including educationists who come across this information to demonstrate moral obligation to bring the news about the existence of NART to all and sundry across the country. Click on https://academy.nitda.gov.ng for more information and enrolment.

What else is there to say than Kudos to NITDA, its management and strategic partners for the birth of NART and several other initiatives towards our national rebirth for sustainable digital economy?

Abdulquadir Apaokagi is an Assistant Director in charge of External Relations at NITDA

The post The Role of NITDA Academy in Accelerating Digital Economy appeared first on Tech Digest News.