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NITAD to partner with IITA in capacity building

Chairman of the Nigerian Institute of Training and Development (NITAD) in Oyo State, Akin Akinpelu, visited IITA-Ibadan with his team on 3 July. The visit was to seek collaboration with IITA in the area of training and development. Representatives from IITA’s Capacity Development Office (CDO), Human Resource Management, and Communication Unit received the delegation at the Agriserve building.

NITAD, an associate of International Federation Training and Development Organisation (IFTDO), is a training institute with the vision to become a world-class training and development institution. One of its objectives is to collaborate with international institutions such as IITA, which is not only a research institute but is also involved in capacity building.

The areas of focus in this partnership are graduate employability in Nigeria, skill acquisition and development, and capacity building at technical and non-technical levels. Nonetheless, as an institute with the mandate to regulate the activities of learning and development in Nigeria, NITAD encouraged IITA to register with them to become a certified training institute.

Akinpelu made it clear that individual trainers can also become certified and be given practicing licences, as there are two membership routes—individual and corporate membership routes.

“We would like to extend this opportunity to IITA members who play a role in capacity development as membership is open to anyone involved in capacity development. Any practicing individual or institute involved in capacity development but not registered with NITAD could be termed a quack,” he said.

Head of IITA CDO, Zainatou Sougrynoma Sore, noted that IITA is open to all kinds of training requests where it can team up with and provide the skills needed for such partners. “IITA has a longstanding history in collaborating with the national agricultural research system (NARS) to bring about technologies and double the innovations of IITA and to train technicians and researchers in the national system,” she said.

Having gotten an idea of possible collaboration areas, both parties decided to further examine those areas with the plan to have a follow-up meeting where decisions would be finalized.