table of contents - ITF Nigeria

the bedrock for increased productivity in the manufacturing industry. It is the
essential factor needed to achieve a strong economy and sustainable national
development.
Interestingly, Nigeria is not the only nation that has encountered the challenge of
Skills-Gap. In a study in the United States of America, Reese (2001) noted that
today’s skill shortages are extremely broad, cutting across industry sectors and
affecting more than 80 percent of the companies. This fact is quite revealing as
one would have thought that Skills-Gap is an issue in developing nations alone
and would not affect a country like the United State of America. However, Homer
(2001) noted that organizations will always have Skills-Gaps as they are growing
and moving into new and different areas. The key is to be able to strategically
adapt to changes in technology.
Presently, a lot of sophisticated equipment and tools are being manufactured
which are aimed at increasing productivity in the manufacturing industry to
improve equality of products. When these machines and equipment are deployed
to facilitate production, skilled manpower will definitely, be required to operate,
maintain and repair them. Similarly, as production becomes more specialized and
more reliant on precision machining, the challenge of widening Skills -Gap
between skills currently possessed by workers and skills required for quality
product that can compete favorably with similar products in international market
will have to be addressed. This will be compounded by greater competition for
skilled individuals in a rapidly globalised world.
The urgent need, therefore, to examine more in-depth issues of Skills-Gap in the
FB&T sector becomes inevitable. The major concern of the study therefore, is to
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