Alausa moves to overhaul MBTE, targets practical skills revolution

The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, has launched a major restructuring of the Monotechnic and Technical Education Board (MBTE) as part of efforts to strengthen Nigeria’s industrialisation, youth employment and global competitiveness.

Alausa disclosed this while outlining ongoing reforms aimed at repositioning the agency and aligning technical and vocational education and training, TVET, with the skills requirements of the Nigerian economy.

At the centre of the reform is a comprehensive institutional assessment being undertaken with global professional services firm, KPMG, to review MBTE’s organisational structure, internal processes and operational framework.

The minister said the exercise was necessary to build an agency capable of effectively supervising and coordinating polytechnics, monotechnics and other institutions under its mandate while advancing the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu.

He stressed that the restructuring was not merely an administrative exercise but a fundamental attempt to redefine the role of MBTE and strengthen its capacity to drive Nigeria’s skills revolution.

“Everything about the polytechnic is technical and vocational education and training. It is all about skills. We are simply discussing skills,” Alausa said.

According to him, the effectiveness of institutions responsible for supervising technical education would determine the success of the Federal Government’s broader TVET reform agenda.

He said MBTE must become a “fit-for-purpose” institution capable of ensuring that polytechnics and monotechnics produce graduates equipped with practical competencies required by industry.

According to Vanguard, the urgency of the reform was underscored by findings presented by KPMG Africa and KPMG Nigeria.

Adewale Ajayi, Partner and Head of Tax, Regulatory and People Services at KPMG Africa and KPMG Nigeria, said about 93 per cent of Nigeria’s workforce operates in the informal sector, while approximately 12 per cent of young Nigerians are neither in education, employment nor technical training.

Despite the challenges, Ajayi said Nigeria had significant potential to use TVET to address the skills gap, noting that the country ranks highly in the employability of TVET graduates.

He said only Singapore ranked ahead of Nigeria among the markets assessed in terms of TVET graduate employability.

Ajayi, however, warned that outdated curricula remained a major obstacle to unlocking the full potential of technical education.

He disclosed that more than 55 per cent of the curricula assessed were outdated, affecting programmes across engineering, science, arts and design.

He attributed part of the problem to funding constraints and the five-year curriculum review cycle, although he cited the recent review of the agriculture curriculum as a positive development.

Responding to the curriculum challenge, Alausa said the government had already begun reforms, with N1 billion from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFund, deployed to support the review of polytechnic curricula and the development of National Occupational Standards.

The exercise, he disclosed, produced 27 new National Occupational Standards, while four existing standards were reviewed, bringing the total to 31.

The minister said the new framework would create a more coherent skills pathway, linking artisan-level training with National Certificate, National Diploma and Higher National Diploma programmes.

He explained that the objective was to move away from a system where technical education was viewed primarily as an academic pursuit, stressing that the ultimate measure of success should be the ability of graduates to secure employment, establish businesses and contribute to productivity.

“The ultimate purpose of the reform is to ensure that Nigerians undergoing technical education acquire practical competencies that can translate into employment, entrepreneurship and increased productivity,” he said.

Alausa said the ongoing reforms were designed to ensure that Nigeria’s technical institutions responded directly to labour market realities and industry requirements.

He noted that polytechnic education was an integral component of the country’s wider TVET ecosystem and should consequently be developed around practical skills rather than certificates alone.

The KPMG-led assessment, according to the minister, is expected to identify institutional weaknesses and recommend measures to strengthen MBTE’s organisational structure, internal mechanisms and operational processes.

He said the recommendations would provide a clearer framework for the agency to discharge its statutory responsibilities while supporting the Federal Government’s wider reforms in technical and vocational education.

Alausa said a stronger MBTE would improve oversight, institutional accountability and coordination across polytechnics, monotechnics and other technical institutions.