DBI develops new strategic curricula to up skills of specialized IT professionals
The Digital Bridge Institute (DBI), a division of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has idealized what it called special skills and standards for professionals in strategic aspects of Information and Communications Technology (ICT).
The new skills border on digital services operations, creative media production, mobile application development, web application development and social media communications.
The new set of skills was introduced at the ongoing week-long programme designed to evaluate skills standards under the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), in Abuja.
The Board is charged with the regulatory oversight for national occupational standards and skills.
Experts say “if the standards pass acceptability test by industry stakeholders’ and the NBTE, they will become part of the Nigerian Skills Qualification Framework, which is a system for the development, classification and recognition of skills, knowledge, understanding and competencies acquired by individuals irrespective of where and how the training or skill is acquired”.
In his remarks on Tuesday, the Director of DBI, Dr. Ike Adinde, said the standards were developed to fill a vacuum in the ICT industry, which contributes N1.6tn to the Nigerian economy on a quarterly basis.
According to him, “Until now, there has not been a framework for identifying and mainstreaming standards skill in certain areas of ICT. I give you a typical example; people are doing stuff in web development, mobile app development, creative media production, social media communications, telecommunications maintenance, etc. A lot of these skill sets have not been organised into a national standard such that you can place the holders of these skills within a particular framework work in terms of what they can do.
“It is important that we do this because the formal education from the university, a BSc degree in computer science, electrical electronics, telecommunications or any of those related areas does not specifically indicate your skill level.
“So what this does is to clearly place your skill within a certain framework based on the standards that are being set today. It creates a wider and more open access to people who do not have access to formal education in the university.”
Earlier in his presentation, the Director, Skill Development at NBTE, Mr. Abbati Mohammed, who represented the director-general of the agency, said the programme was aimed at developing national occupational standards in Information and Communications Technology sector for training, assessment and certification of skills, knowledge and competence, whether achieved formally or informally.
The Director averred that “What we are developing for these few days is a document. The impact of this document in the sector is that it will be used for training and it will be used in industries for assessment, recruitment, and promotion.
“Industries may use it to train their own staff. The document will also be used for national certification. Most of the skills acquired in the formal sector are not certified in this country,” NBTE boss noted.
