responsibilities, emphasis is placed on civic education, to raising the obligation level of the citizen to the state.

If it is the case that economic growth and technological development are stunted, investments in education are geared towards growing both technical and vocational skills towards engendering economic recovery and growth.

This ought to be the case in many underdeveloped or developing countries. With all human development indicators at their nadir in many of these countries, the quickest route out of economic quagmire and directionless is to channel the people's energy towards acquiring ICT skills, and investing in ICT infrastructureto quicken economic development. While a large pool of skilled citizenry has more creativity, has a higher output, and is easily employed, investing in ICT infrastructure helps to ginger growth in all sectors of the economy. Many developing countries, unfortunately, do not yet fully realize the twin relationship between

skills at the individual level and investment in ICT infrastructure.
Japan and South Korea, and recently, China, represent the clearest modern examples of countries, once regarded as backward and underdeveloped, which have changed their fortunes by investing in ICTs. The change is not happenstance, but a deliberate, planned, and focused strategy to grow all facets of human development, with a well trained and highly skilled citizenry as the bulwark for the successes that have been recorded. That is why the recent announcement by the Federal Ministry of Education, FME, of its alliance with Cisco to train unemployed graduates of Nigeria's tertiary institutions, is similar to such deliberate acts that have changed the fortunes of the aforementioned countries.

The partnership is anchored on training 20,000 graduates that are still unemployed one decade after their graduation. The FME commissioned a survey which showed that 64 per cent of graduates from Nigeria's tertiary institutions since 1996 are unemployed. In addition, they are unemployable because they lack the required skills to compete in a modern, knowledge-driven economy, which Nigeria is gradually turning into. This potential modern economy, however, is experiencing acute shortage of skilled hands to work in key sectors. And yet there is the dilemma of 64 per cent unemployment among the tertiary educated class of Nigerians in the country.

The FME and Cisco partnership will open access to these graduates to train at Cisco Network Academies spread all over the country. The graduates will be taken through the different level of certifications, and upon completion of their training, would have obtained the requisite skills to work in a modern organisation where the management of data in a secure network is paramount. The telecom and technology sectors also require these highly skilled people to maintain competitive edge in business. This scheme will cost Cisco about N4.5billion, while the Federal Government will contribute N800million as its counterpart funding. It will also lead to the setting up of 100 NetAcademies in Nigeria this year.

The Cisco Network Academies (NetAcademies) offer one of the fastest routes to getting the skills to work in a knowledge economy. The various certification programmes are designed to help students configure, build and maintain networks. Running in over 160 countries, in 11 languages, and now in its 10th year, the Cisco NetAcademy is making a difference in the lives of many people, including the underserved in the farthest parts of the world.This programme has a curriculum designed for success, with emphasis on acquiring skills in specific ICT areas. The NetAcademies offer a range of courses for a variety of careers in network design and administration, technical support, programming or software engineering, database development and administration. In today's networked world, these careers are aligned to the buzzwords used in describing how the network works.
The programme is open to everybody, irrespective of educational qualifications and skills acquired prior to commencing the process leading to certification. There are over 30 Cisco Academies in Nigeria and the programme is expected to spread very rapidly in all the states of the Federation, including the Federal Capital Territory. It will be available both at the secondary and tertiary levels of education.