INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY FOR TECHNOLOGY ENTREPRENEURS (IACATECH)

This obvious critical skill gaps inhibits the development of youths and the entire development of the nation. More than half of the Nigerian populations are under the age of 30 according to the National Population Commission (2001). Therefore, it can be asserted that the economy of Nigeria is a youth economy. Expectedly, today’s youth will become in a short decade tomorrow’s parents, leaders, labour force and armies. However, the Nigerian youths are said to be confronted with poverty, unemployment, urbanization, lack of capacity and skills needed to move the economy forward.

The youthful period which is a very critical one that has been noted as an essential time for training in entrepreneurship, provides a positive distractive alternative from the self-destructive and aggressive behaviour that are frequently associated with adolescents and growing up (Woolfolk, 1998). In a study of American adolescents in 1998, it was reported that a good number of the youths had little information about life and life expectations. If this is true of youths in a developed nation; what can be said of Nigerian youths? This critical age however is the right time to teach them the concept of entrepreneurship to help them learn wealth creation.

Entrepreneurship is not just skill acquisition for acquisition sake. It is an acquisition of skills and ideas for the sake of creating employment for oneself and also for others. It also includes the development based on creativity. Entrepreneurship leads to the development of small, medium and sometimes large scale businesses based on creativity and innovation. The success of these businesses in turn helps in developing the nation. It also reduces poverty rate with visible increment of employment rate among the youths. Creativity is thinking up new things, Innovation is doing new things –Theodore Levitt

Nigerian education is presently at a crossroad as far as producing individuals who will work to deserve and justify their pay, work independently, globally and bring creativity into their work place. The current mismatch between what Nigerian economy needs and what Nigerian youths are made to study in schools is becoming very appalling. The result of a three week large scale, rapid national survey in 2004 jointly sponsored by NUC and Education Trust Fund (ETF) to determine the needs of the labour market that Nigerian university graduates are failing to meet revealed that of 100 individuals and 20 organizations visited, 44 per cent rated Nigerian science graduates as average in competence, 56 per cent rated them as average in innovation, 50 per cent rated them average in rational judgment, 63 per cent as average in leadership skills, 44 percent as average in creativity.

On needed skills like literacy, oral communication, information technology, entrepreneurial, analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making 60 per cent rated them as poor. This data can be said to explain why there has been very obvious increase in unemployment rate. One of the reasons given was that these graduates were simply unemployable.

IATECH is an international professional association aimed at individuals willing to acquire skills and abilities that can help to create and manage new tech-based venture or be used as member of an existing tech-based organisation which is calling upon employees to act in an entrepreneurial and creative way. This Association is also aimed at enhancing the skills and abilities of potential technopreneurs, in particular those willing to be part of the SMEs’ sector, by addressing a wide range of technical, managerial, marketing and financial issues within an entrepreneurial context.

This implies that they would be provided with information, knowledge, skills, and attitudes that would enable them perform well as technology entrepreneurs. These competencies will in turn help them deploy their zeal for nation building in a very efficient manner. Anything short of these realities will be handling Nigerian problems of repositioning the youths with kid gloves.