Enugu is not only promising a greater future; it’s actively working in the direction of it. With a younger, dynamic inhabitants and a urgent problem of unemployment, the state shouldn’t be clinging to conventional schooling fashions that merely problem certificates. Below the visionary management of Governor Peter Ndubuisi Mbah, and with the Science, Technical, and Vocational Faculties Administration Board (STVSMB) main the cost, Enugu is charting a brand new course. It’s remodeling Technical and Vocational Training and Coaching (TVET) from a final resort to a first-choice pathway. The slogan is ‘Tomorrow Is Right here,’ however the actuality is that the long run is being meticulously designed, scheduled, and imparted.
The primary process is cultural. For too lengthy, TVET has suffered a branding drawback: revered in personal, missed in public. Repositioning it as a prestigious path to dignity and prosperity means telling new tales—and backing them with new methods. It means seeing a younger girl with a welding badge as a frontrunner, not an outlier; a rural boy with a mechatronics credential as a builder of native trade, not a plan B. It means integrating TVET into SS1–SS3 timetables so it sits beside arithmetic and literature, not behind them. It means twin certification—WAEC/NABTEB plus a vocational talent badge—so studying produces each recognition and readiness.
Nevertheless it wants infrastructure too. The Authorities Technical School, GTC, Enugu, inherited by Governor Peter Mbah was so dilapidated and an eyesore. First, he shipped the scholars to others colleges, insisting that no Enugu little one ought to research in such surroundings. In July 2024, he descended on the decrepit GTC with bulldozers in order that the previous, disgraceful relic might give means for one thing ultramodern.
On June 9, 2025, lower than a yr later, the First Woman of Nigeria, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, commissioned GTC Enugu because the pilot launchpad for TVET within the state with seven extra developing within the remaining seven Federal Constituencies of Enugu State. The selection of GTC for the pilot is each symbolic and strategic: an establishment with a historical past and a location with attain; a neely constructed ultramodern infrastructure blended studying, together with a number of blocks of beautiful hostel with the capability to take the expected1,200 college students. This pilot turns into a statewide normal.
But the center of any transformation beats within the classroom—and within the workshop adjoining to it. Enugu’s curriculum structure is competency-based and aligned with the Nationwide Abilities {Qualifications} Framework (NSQF). Learners gained’t simply cram; they are going to reveal their understanding. Stackable badges permit development from foundational competencies to larger certifications, and the evaluation is as a lot about what a pupil can construct as what they will recall. Profession steerage and mentorship usually are not add-ons; they’re baked into the timetable. Apprenticeships and trade publicity usually are not favours; they’re formal pathways. The state is making a easy promise to its younger folks: you’ll study, you’ll earn, and you may be geared up to steer.
This requires a brand new sort of teacher pipeline—one that mixes pedagogy with sensible expertise. STVSMB’s sourcing technique is deliberately plural. Tertiary establishments just like the Enugu State School of Training (Technical) (ESCET) will do what they do greatest: pedagogy, trade-specific educating, and trainer coaching. IMT Enugu provides engineering, ICT, and enterprise modules. The Faculties of Nursing, Agriculture, and Well being Expertise prolong the frontier into well being, biotechnology, and agribusiness. UNN helps curriculum design, mentorship, and analysis.
Trade won’t sit within the spectator stand. By means of the “Undertake-a-Commerce” programme, artisans, technicians, and entrepreneurs step into school rooms as visitor instructors. Company companions, similar to Innoson Kiara, Haier Thermocool, and the Dewdrop Institute of Hospitality and Tourism, present trainers and co-design modules. Retired professionals return as grasp craftsmen and mentors. Requirements maintain all of it collectively: NBTE’s function in coaching and certification ensures that excellence is outlined nationally, at the same time as supply is localised.
Two institutional improvements make this pipeline sturdy. First, the Enugu Centre for Experiential Studying and Innovation (CELI), situated at ESCET and inaugurated by Governor Mbah in August 2024, serves as a hub for coaching and retraining educators throughout Good Inexperienced Faculties being constructed by Mbah Administration in 260 wards for as a outstanding paradigm shift from rote or memoralisation studying to experiential studying in a Twenty first Century surroundings. CELI is the place lecturers study to show the Fourth Industrial Revolution: inquiry-based studying, challenge studios, digital instruments, and maker-space mindsets.
Second, the flagship ESCET–STVSMB Trainer Coaching Partnership Program, launched on August 11, 2025, and led by Dr. Amaka Ngene, Chairman of STVSMB, units an bold goal: to coach 1,000 educators in Twenty first-century pedagogy for science, technical, and vocational schooling. Modules cowl competency-based supply, blended studying, inclusive and gender-sensitive pedagogy, entrepreneurship integration, and the gritty craft of classroom administration and learner engagement. This isn’t a one-off boot camp; it’s a tradition. Quarterly workshops hold content material present; peer networks and innovation labs hold practices sharp; certification upgrades and refresher programs hold credentials present; KPI dashboards hold everybody accountable.
These dashboards matter. Transformation with out measurement is theatre. Enugu’s outcomes are express: 100% of instructors are licensed for NSQF-aligned supply; at the very least 80% retention throughout GTCs; annual participation in skilled improvement is at or above 90%; teacher satisfaction and efficiency are tracked and acted upon. And the learner-side indicators—badge completion, apprenticeship uptake, job placement, enterprise begins—shall be outlined, collected, and revealed because the pilot matures. If the promise is that TVET is usually a lever for inclusive prosperity, the proof should be that graduates are getting into jobs, constructing micro-enterprises, or progressing into additional research with out dead-ends.
Digital methods usually are not only a help, however an important a part of the initiative, stitching the entire ecosystem collectively. A learner data system will observe progress from SS1 by way of certification; a placement and apprenticeship portal will match expertise to companies in actual time; the skilled improvement dashboard will assist faculty leaders coach relatively than guess. None of this ignores the human realities of entry. Inclusion is a design precept: gender-responsive pedagogy, role-model visibility, and focused helps for learners with vulnerabilities be sure that TVET doesn’t reproduce previous exclusions underneath a brand new title. In observe, this implies providing scholarships, guaranteeing secure studying environments, offering versatile scheduling for caregiving college students, and implementing community-anchored tasks that showcase abilities and their worth near dwelling.
Trade partnership is the driving power behind this transformation. When companies actively take part in co-designing curricula, internet hosting apprentices, donating tools, and hiring graduates, a belief loop is shaped. College students see a transparent path to employment; employers see a pipeline of expert staff; and colleges see the relevance of their schooling being rewarded. Entrepreneurship can also be a key side, with incubations embedded in TVET Faculties, entry to start-up kits and micro-finance, and post-graduation mentoring changing abilities into viable companies. Native economies usually are not simply occupied with what is thought, but additionally in what’s made, repaired, put in, and grown. TVET is talking the language of livelihoods.
The timeframe of 2025–2031 retains everybody centered. The pilot yr establishes credibility; the replication part expands to seven further TVET Faculties; consolidation standardises NSQF alignment, professionalises the trainer corps, and deepens digital and information capabilities. All through, the Governor’s Workplace and Ministry of Training present coverage cowl, funding alignment, and public advocacy; the First Woman’s commissioning lends nationwide visibility; communities and alumni networks widen the circle of help. The North Star stays a daring social aim: to contribute meaningfully to reaching a zero-percent poverty headcount by way of education-driven empowerment. Lofty? Sure. However poverty shouldn’t be persuaded by modesty.
There may be, after all, threat. Teacher retention will depend on significant profession pathways and truthful compensation. Trade engagement should outlast photo-ops. Knowledge methods should defend privateness whereas enabling perception. And the social rebranding of TVET will take as a lot storytelling as infrastructure. But the structure is sound as a result of it’s coherent: curriculum, capability, partnerships, information, and dignity reinforce each other.
If Enugu succeeds, it won’t merely produce expert graduates; it’s going to normalise a brand new social contract between faculty and society. Younger folks won’t be informed to attend their flip; they are going to be taught to make it. Dad and mom won’t measure success solely by college admission; they may also rejoice mastery and monetary achieve. Communities won’t worry mind drain; they are going to really feel mind circulation as abilities root and multiply regionally. By 2031, the phrase “TVET capital of West Africa” will learn much less like a boast and extra like an outline.
And so, the chorus turns into a roadmap: We create with our fingers. We rise with our abilities. We lead with our objective. Tomorrow is right here—Enugu is prepared.
Dr Ukachukwu, a public affairs analyst, writes from Lagos
