Naomi Gabriel —
At least, 100 youth are to be trained in modern design, production of Plaster of Paris (POP) and installations at the on-going nationwide empowerment program embarked on by the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), Nasarawa State.
The training programme is the first-phase of North Central regional skill development to be carried out among other directives of President Muhammadu Buhari to NASENI. This is to ensure that Nigerian youth are trained in various trades and professions and will get them equipped with modern skills and empowerment for job creation and self-employment.
The Chief Executive of NASENI, Prof. Mohammed Sani Haruna, said the training modules for each state and geopolitical zones have been based on feasibilities and needs assessments.
“The on-going skill development training and youth empowerment programme by the Agency across the country is aimed at introducing modern and technological ways of carrying out already existing trades and occupation by the people at the grassroots, Haruna said.
“It is also targeted at developing the needed critical competent work-force for industrialization of the country, a charge that had been given to NASENI by President Buhari”.
He also said the training and retraining were to make practitioners more efficient and to enhance the prospects of earning a living from their chosen vocations.
The Agency, he explained, always carried out its feasibility studies on vocations in all the geo-political zones of the country to know what the youths in each zone were already making a living from and to retrain them on how to use modern equipment to strengthen their skills and make more rooms for job creation and self-reliance.
“We are in the nation’s home of solid minerals, Nasarawa state, the North-Central Zone of Nigeria to train 100 selected youths from the zone on the Modern Method of Casting Plaster of Paris (POP) and its Applications. Plaster of Paris, commonly known as POP, is basically dehydrated gypsum, or Calcium Sulphate, available in powdered form. When the dry powder is mixed with water, it rehydrates and sets in the shape of the mould into hard gypsum again”.
He said one of the challenges of POP professionalism in the country is the absence of appropriate tools and equipment for the design, preparation, moulding and casting, thereby making POP work labour intensive with attendant inconsistency or non-uniformity where such patterns would have added beauty and utility.
“The extra manpower needed in manual handling of the designs translates to extra expenses and time wasting. But the advancement in portable electric power tools and computer aided design and mould making is not only beneficial in terms of profitability but also in terms of beauty and safety.
“This is the advancement that trainees are now being exposed to in Nasarawa State, which would also benefit traditional bone setting practitioners in accuracy, precision and optimal utilization of materials”.
Governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Sule, represented by Professor Umar GurKu said if the use of POP were in high demand in the state and beyond, then, the prospect of wealth creation and bringing job satisfaction to those involved in the vocation were also high.
“Such highly paying job area could not be ignored by a caring government without creating more enabling environment for innovation and professionalism. This is the reason for the state Government’s support for this skill acquisition training and empowerment programme facilitated by NASENI, he said.
