Artisans protest lack of facilities at ITF training centre, Awka next

For over two hours, activities at the Industrial Training Fund were paralysed on Tuesday following a

protest by trainees of the Model Skill Training Centre of the ITF.

Meanwhile, the Artisans in Anambra state are preparing for a show down over same issues and worst.

The students, who are artisans, in their huge number, defied the heavy presence of security personnel who were deployed in the premises and shut the gate to protest what they described as the absence of training facilities at the nation’s foremost skill acquisition centre.

They had earlier in the day marched to the National Assembly, where a protest letter calling for a full scale investigation into the activities of the school, was submitted to the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

In the letter of protest, dated April 28, which had already been acknowledged by the Office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the students called for a thorough investigation into activities of the centre.

According to the letter, a copy of which was made available to our correspondent, the students alleged that the lack of adequate facilities at the centre had made them to spent about four years for a two-year programme.

The letter reads in part, “We, the (trainee) students of the Model Skill Training Centre, under the ITF through he Ministry of Trade and Investment, are under a terrible situation in our training programme and we need your intervention to carry out a full scale investigation into the programmes in ITF.

“Students that enrolled for a two-year programme since 2011 and the subsequent ones are yet to graduate without any genuine reasons.

“As of the time we applied for training, we were not informed that the school did not have enough practical equipment to start with.

 “The incentives provided by the Federal Government are yet to be given to any of the students.”

But the Director-General, ITF, Dr Juliet Chukas-Onaeko, while responding to the allegations, said a committee had been set up by the management of ITF to look into the grievances of the students.