Post-Training Proficiency Test has been described as part of quality assurance measures introduced into the Skills Training and Entrepreneurship Programme (STEP) to ensure its success.
The STEP Programme Coordinator in the Delta State Job and Wealth Creation Bureau, Mr. Onyeisi Nkenchor, made the remark during the Post Training Proficiency Test (PTPT) organized for STEP graduands who recently completed their 8 months training in Fashion Design and Tailoring at different training centers across the state.
Mr. Nkenchor explained that PTPT was introduced into the STEP programme to ensure that trainees who complete hands-on trainings are tested and certified to be competent in their chosen vocational skills before they are given establishment packs, and to ensure that the State Government received value for its money.
He added, “The PTPT ensures that the trainers and trainees, knowing fully well that there will be PTPT, get serious with trainings during the hands-on trainings at various centers.”
The STEP Coordinator disclosed that 231 graduands in Fashion Designing and Tailoring will undergone the PTPT in batches from Monday 8th to Friday 12th November, 2021 at Signature Secret Fashion School, Asaba.
He pointed out that failure in the PTPT was not the end of the journey for the graduands, explaining that there was a window of opportunity for unsuccessful trainees to go for further training at personal cost, undergo another PTPT before proceeding to Entrepreneurship and Business Management Training (EBMT), and subsequently be established with starter pack.
“This point is important because as the Chief Job and Wealth Creation Officer, Prof Eric Eboh, will indicate, every item for every trainee has already been provided for. So, the bridge between the hands-on training and collection of starter pack is the PTPT,” he stated.
On her part, one of the job creation assessors for fashion and the CEO of Osyvirn Fashion Home, Asaba, Mrs. Virginia Okereke, said her five years of experience as a job creation trainer has shown that trainees have become more focused since PTPT was introduced into the programme unlike in the past when every STEP trainee received starter park whether competent or not.
PTPT, she said, inspired in them the desire to learn well and to acquire the skills so as to qualify for the starter pack.
Responding, one of the graduands, Ekwevugbe Akpevwe who hails from Uvwie Local Government Area, said her passion to make a difference in the fashion world, create her own design and to improve on existing ones motivated her to enroll in STEP.
She added that she went extra mile to learn from those ahead of her and from her trainer’s employee in other to meet the criteria for assessment. She expressed confidence that she would be successful at the test.
In the same vein, Mr. Hilary Ezedi (Jnr) an indigene of Ika North East Local Government Area, a lawyer by training, said he has great passion for beautiful clothes and to establish a fashion home in spite of his legal profession.
“PTPT made me serious and willing to learn to ensure that I understood my trainer. I am confident that I shall do well in the PTPT to make real my vision of establishing one of the best fashion design outfits in town,” he enthused.
By Gertrude Onyekachukwu-Uteh and Laura Oghene