The Minister of Education, Dr Maruf Tunji Alausa, CON, has said Nigeria’s education system must be repositioned to produce trained, certified and adaptable workers capable of competing in the global outsourcing and digitally enabled services market.

Alausa stated this at the Hire From Nigeria side event held on the margins of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York, where he outlined the Federal Ministry of Education’s role in supplying skilled manpower for Nigeria’s emerging talent-export agenda.

The Minister said Nigeria’s youthful population, English-language advantage, cultural adaptability and expanding digital capabilities placed the country in a strong position to participate in the global services economy.

> “Nigeria’s greatest asset is its people: a young, ambitious, English-speaking and increasingly digitally capable population. Our task in Education is to turn that scale into verified competence and reliable service delivery.”

According to him, the global outsourcing and digitally enabled services sector presents opportunities for Nigeria to create jobs, increase export earnings and enable young Nigerians to build internationally sourced careers without necessarily leaving the country.

He, however, identified the mismatch between training and changing employer requirements, limited work-based learning and inadequate access to internationally recognised certifications as key challenges that must be addressed.

Alausa said the ministry was responding through curriculum reforms, stronger accreditation and quality assurance, as well as expanded digital and technical training in partnership with federal institutions and credible private providers.

He called for a permanent employer-led feedback mechanism in the education system, arguing that employers should participate in programme design, training, assessment, certification and recruitment.

“We need a permanent employer-led feedback loop, not occasional curriculum reviews,” he said.

The Minister also disclosed that the Federal Government’s free Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programme had received more than one million applications, with about 160,000 trainees supported through approximately 1,200 centres nationwide.

He said the centres include Federal Technical Colleges and accredited private training institutions.

Alausa added that the government was promoting multiple pathways to employment and entrepreneurship, including university education, TVET, apprenticeships and continuous upskilling.

The Minister said preparing Nigerian youths for an economy increasingly driven by artificial intelligence and advanced technologies was another major priority of the education reform agenda.

“We must train young people to work with artificial intelligence, not to compete with it on routine tasks,” he said.

He listed skills such as judgement, creativity, domain knowledge, data literacy, cybersecurity, cloud services, software development, customer success, quality assurance and AI-enabled operations as increasingly important in the changing labour market.

Alausa said the Federal Government, through its Digital Training Academy, was partnering with global learning platforms, including Coursera and Pluralsight, to provide 32,000 Nigerians with free access to professional digital and technology training.

The programme covers areas including product management, cloud computing, cybersecurity, information technology automation, artificial intelligence and machine learning, agentic AI, financial technology, parallel computing, quantum computing and natural language processing.

He also highlighted the Student Venture Capital Grant, which he said was supporting students in STEMM disciplines to transform innovative ideas into viable businesses.

Alausa urged international employers, Business Process Outsourcing operators, investors and development partners to move beyond expressions of interest and establish practical partnerships capable of creating sustainable talent pipelines.

He asked employers to define their workforce requirements, participate in designing training programmes, provide work-based learning opportunities, recognise credible Nigerian certifications and recruit from Nigerian talent pools.

BPO operators and investors, he said, should also consider establishing delivery centres beyond Nigeria’s major commercial cities while supporting training infrastructure, connectivity, quality systems and management capacity.

The Minister called on development partners to support scalable certification programmes, instructor development, inclusion of women and underserved communities, labour-market intelligence and outcome measurement focused on employment rather than merely the number of people trained.

He further advocated international institutional partnerships and centres of excellence in Nigerian institutions to strengthen global linkages, benchmarking and knowledge transfer.

Alausa said the Ministry would, on its part, deepen industry participation in curriculum development and certification, expand market-relevant TVET and digital skills programmes, strengthen accreditation and quality assurance, and improve the connection between education institutions, training providers and employers.

The initiatives, he said, form part of the Ministry’s role on the supply side of the National Talent Export Programme, which aims to create one million export-linked jobs and 10 million globally certified Nigerians by 2030.

The Ministry is also leading the Supply Technical Working Group under the programme.

Alausa reaffirmed that the reforms were aligned with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, particularly its focus on human capital development, job creation, skills acquisition and inclusive economic growth.

> “Under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, our commitment is clear: we will continue to invest in the skills, knowledge and innovation of our young people and build an education system that gives Nigerian talent the capacity and confidence to compete and succeed anywhere in the world.”

He said the government would continue working towards an education and skills system capable of connecting Nigerian talent with global opportunities while enabling more young Nigerians to build sustainable careers within and outside the country.