The Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN), in collaboration with the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), is set to validate 35 National Occupational Standards (NOS) aimed at shaping the future of ICT education in Nigeria.
The council’s registrar/secretary, Mr. Muhammed Bello Aliyu, stated this during yesterday’s validation workshop on NOS in ICT in Abuja.
Aliyu said the council understands the importance of stakeholders in the IT ecosystem for this validation exercise and appreciated them for creating the time to attend the workshop despite the short notice.
“As the awarding body, we are here with the sector state council and also the regulators, the Nigeria Board for Technical Education (NBTE), through the royal blessing of our Executive Secretary, that we find time now to validate all 35, which is one of the most amazing moments because we have 35 different NOS that we are validating today.
“What we intend to achieve is to address the digital skills gap in the country. On these particular skills that we are trying to validate, the standard upon which every other will now be based will output the general standards for digital skills training in the country.
“So, with that particular aspect and having been allowed to be the awarding body for ICT, we have a sector skill council in Nigeria. Under that, we were able to start with the NBTE. NBTE relates to polytechnics in Nigeria.
“We are happy to know that setting IT educational standards is one of our co-mandates. We are also part of the Ministry of Education, which gives us an advantage in ensuring that each sector you are calling, like universities, colleges of education, and so on, is reached. By this validation, we will have a globally accepted standard that can be used for all the digital skills needed in the country,” he added.
The Executive Secretary of NBTE, Prof. Idris Mohammad Bugaje, represented by Dr. Musa Hatim Koko, Director of Curriculum, NBTE, commended the registrar of the Council for providing the platform for this excellent initiative.
Data protection and privacy, he said, require nothing less than 500 experts.
The Head of Business Development at CPN, Mr. Benjamin Prince, gave an overview of the new NOS for ICT and said the council is open to collaboration to build the sector.