NAN

The Provost, Federal Training Centre (FTC), Ikoyi, Mr. Adewole Adeniran, has said that the centre trained over 40,000 civil and public servants since inception in 1957.

Adeniran said, in Lagos, on Wednesday, that the centre was established essentially as a stenographic school.

He said the centre was put in place as a graphic training school to cater for the stenographers and the official reporters in the civil service.

The Provost said the centre was, essentially, put in place to train the lower and the middle-level income workers from grade level one to seven.

According to him, the centre has gone through the transformation, over the years, from being a stenographic institution to one that offers a range of courses like public administration, business administration, computer science and Secretariat studies.

“The centre has trained more than 40,000 students over that period of time. Currently, we have about 170 students in 2018 session.

“The enrolment is low now because of the state of the economy of the country.

“For a long time, the government has not been employing into the lower cadre jobs, and as such, we do not have many people that will come for the type of training that we offer here.

“We hope that in distance future, the enrolment rate will improve, particularly with the recent accreditation visit to the centre by the National Board of Technical Education,” he said.

He said the government policy has limited the employment of junior level and that this has reduced the number of trainees at the centre over the years.

According to him, the centre offers programmes in the computer, public administration, business administration and Secretariat management.

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“We also run programmes that are peculiar to the civil service, like the professional diploma in verbatim reporting.

“Our institution is about the only institution that offers that programme in the whole of the country.

“Those reporters are employed in the media houses and in the state houses of assembly among others.”

Adeniran explained that government policy on the recruitment of lower cadre officers, largely affect enrolment into the centre.

He explained that the Federal Government has stopped recruiting the junior level over a period of time.

The provost noted that there was a policy some years ago on contracting government businesses like garden, cleaning and security to private individuals or firms.

Adeniran urged the Federal Government to upgrade infrastructural facilities at the centres across the country to attract more students.

Mr Ndubuisi Osuji, Permanent Secretary, Service Policy and Strategy Office, Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF), told NAN that the Federal Government has concluded arrangement to reposition the Federal Training Centre across the six geo-political zones of the country.

Osuji, who until recently was the Director for Learning and Development in the OHCSF, said all the FTCs are currently undergoing institutional study for repositioning.

He said that the mandate of all the centres had changed from churning out secretaries and typists to producing data processors among others.

According to him, the purpose of the centre is to enhance proficiency among the low and middle levels manpower in the civil and public services.