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HND holders must undergo one-year mandatory training- FG

admin | June 24, 2024

Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan, the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, has mandated that workers with Higher National Diplomas (HND) undergo a one-year mandatory training before their conversion from the Executive to Officers cadre.

In a statement on Saturday, Yemi-Esan announced this during a virtual interactive session with civil servants in celebration of the 2024 Civil Service Week. The theme of the week was “Educate an African Fit for the 21st Century: Building Resilient Education Systems for Increased Access to Inclusive, Life-long, Quality and Relevant Learning in Africa.”

The one-year mandatory training program aims to bridge the gap between polytechnic-awarded Higher National Diplomas and university degrees. This issue has been controversial between the National Universities Commission and the National Board for Technical Education. A bill was passed in the Ninth National Assembly in 2021 to end the dichotomy but was not signed into law by the previous administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Consequently, the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), which regulates technical and vocational education, introduced a one-year top-up program allowing HND holders to work towards obtaining a bachelor’s degree.

During the virtual meeting, Yemi-Esan responded to a question from Adebayo Hassan, a Grade Level 14 civil servant, about the B.Sc and HND dichotomy and the Federal Government’s efforts to address it. She explained, “The curriculum for HND and B.Sc holders is not the same; therefore, HND graduates must undergo a mandatory one-year training before their conversion from the Executive to Officers’ cadre.”

Discussing the 2024 Civil Service Week theme, Yemi-Esan emphasized the importance of making education accessible, inclusive, high-quality, and relevant to the evolving demands of the modern world. She stated, “The theme highlights how the Nigerian Civil Service is leveraging learning and development to enhance its workforce’s capacity and capability to deliver on national priorities.”

Yemi-Esan disclosed that the rapidly changing work environment and the demand for greater efficiency have led the Nigerian Civil Service to adopt a Performance Management System (PMS). PMS Policy and Guidelines have been developed and circulated to all Ministries, extra-ministerial Departments, and Agencies. Core teams for its implementation have been duly constituted, with Permanent Secretaries serving as the primary drivers.

She noted, “PMS implementation has been cascaded to the Ministries, with performance contracts further cascaded down to the last officer in each MDA. This new system will assess each officer’s performance based on their respective Key Performance Indicators, enabling the tracking of job objectives across all MDAs. By implication, each officer across the Service can clearly link their goals and objectives with those of their department, the respective Ministry, and the national KPIs.”

Yemi-Esan also described the digitalization of work processes in the Service as a key aspect of the ongoing transformation of the Federal Civil Service. She further stressed that the Office has fully digitized all personal and policy files and is implementing digital transaction workflow processes. All official correspondences, including memos and internal and external circulars, are now processed electronically through the Enterprise Content Management solution.

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