May 14, 2025
VTTC Olu-Aka Di Mma empowers the youths in Enugu environs with practical skills through a landmark partnership between CIDJAP and STVSMB for vocational training.
Good schools are beyond beautiful bricks and mortar. Good schools are defined primarily by the personalities of teachers. Such schools have teachers who introduce new thoughts to students on a regular basis. Such schools can boast of great teachers who introduce new ways of thinking. Good schools have teachers who care about their subjects and students.
Schools with great teachers teach their students knowledge, attitude, and skills for seamless transition from the world of school to the world of work. Schools with great teachers show the students how to learn, acquire knowledge, and apply the same to solve identified societal challenges and, in so doing, create employment for themselves as they make their own money.
This is the story of Olu – Aka Di Mma Enugu.
Have we ever imagined a situation where a Government agency enters into a Partnership that puts a Religious Institution in a position to teach Olu-Aka to schools under the Government agency This is happening in Enugu State, Nigeria, where the State Science and Technical Vocational Schools Management Board (STVSMB), entered into partnership with Catholic Institute for Development, Justice and Peace (CIDJAP), founder and Director of Vocational Technical Training Center, otherwise called Olu-Aka DI Mma.
Under the Partnership, students of 39 schools under the management of the Board are required to go to the Institute on specific days for the purpose of acquiring practical and work-based skills in their respective areas of specialization. This is Youth Empowerment through Skills Acquisition by all means necessary and lawful. Dr. Amaka Ngene of the STVSMB is of the opinion that in the years to come, every graduate in Enugu State would be empowered with at least one employable Skill. What the Catholic Diocese of Enugu is doing with Olu-Aka Di Mma should be a challenge to all religious institutions in Nigeria.
My readers might ask whether the Institute is funded by the Diocese or International agencies. The answer is NO! Olu- Aka Di Mma depends mainly in marketing the Skills and knowledge of the Instructors and the Trainees.
The Institute writes:
“The center, in order to sustain itself, engages in production services which range from:
– Metal doors and windows, to hand rails and protectors for churches, halls, flats etc.
– Overhead tank stand/metal tanks for communities and individuals.
– Metal roofing for churches and big industries.
– Desks, lockers, tables, and chairs for schools, institutions, and individuals.
– Roller/swing gates for general purposes.
– Fabrication of Agricultural Processing Machines.
– Machining of component parts for other machines – gears, shafts, sprockets, bushings, sleeves, hinges, etc.
– Repair/maintenance of industrial machines.
– Repair/maintenance of Automotive – cars, buses, etc.
– Repair/maintenance of household electrical equipment.
– Electrical wiring of churches, halls, and domestic buildings.
– Industrial installation/repairs
– General consultancy services in engineering.”
Meanwhile, according to the Institute, Vocational Technical Training Centre (Olu-Aka Di Mma), Coal Camp, Enugu, is an arm of the Catholic Institute for Development, Justice, and Peace (CIDJAP). CIDJAP itself is a social organization of the Catholic Church committed to the implementation of Catholic social teaching, a non-governmental, nonprofit, research and development organization. VTTC, Olu-Aka Di Mma, is the arm of CIDJAP that focuses on youth development through the acquisition of skills.
It is clear that the major challenge facing the government, society, and the church of Nigeria is unemployment. This has also continued to deteriorate on a daily basis as more and more youths pass out of schools annually without hope of securing a job. That was why in 2002, i.e., precisely sixteen years after the establishment of CIDJAP, it took a bold step to challenge this vice by establishing VTTC with the goal of empowering the youths through vocational training. The idea is to make them self-reliant, self-sustaining, and also create employment opportunities for others, and thus the slogan – Olu-Aka Di Mma.
To achieve the much they have, the Founder/Director, Very Rev. Prof. Monsignor Obiora Ike, liaised with some foreign organizations that share the same idea. Notable among them are Fidesco, Missio, and Misereor, which, through Hugo Oelz, have been supporting the centre in terms of equipment and new project execution/expansion.
The Institute writes that Missio, since 2016, has extensively engaged in sponsoring young people irrespective of their religious affiliations from the Catholic Dioceses of Jos, Jalingo, Kafanchan, and Sokoto. These young men and women who benefit from these training programs of the centre have also brought the relationship between northern and eastern youths into a perfect one. The morals of these young men and women are also touched in a very special way.
By
Patrick Okeke