Developing Leadership Competencies to Drive Systemic Change within Nigeria’s TVET System
Sustaining reform within Nigeria’s TVET and employment ecosystem depends on how institutions lead, collaborate, and adapt. To strengthen this leadership capacity, our German and Swiss co-financed Skills Development for Employment Programme (SKYE II) partnered with the Collective Leadership Institute (CLI) to support members of institutionalised Public Private Dialogue Platforms (PPDPs) across Abuja, Edo, Enugu, Lagos, Ogun, and Plateau.
With the support of SKYEII implemented by GIZ, 50 partners from federal and state institutions participated in CLI’s Art of Transformative Change (ATC) and Art of Leading Collectively (ALC) programmes in 2025. Grounded in the Dialogic Change Model and the Collective Leadership Compass, the programmes strengthened participants’ ability to engage stakeholders, co-create solutions, navigate power dynamics, and sustain reforms across the policy cycle.
These leadership practices are already translating into action. A Transformative Change Network (TCN) now connects trained partners across states for peer learning, mentoring, and collaborative problem-solving. In parallel, 15 professionals from GIZ partner institutions have been inducted as certified Collective Leadership specialists and are applying co-creative leadership approaches within their institutions.
In Ogun State, the Ogun State TVET Board leveraged these learnings to design a leadership workshop for principals of technical colleges and heads of Vocational and Skills Acquisition Centres, focused on leadership in complex stakeholder landscapes. As part of sustainability measures under the Ogun State Economic Transformation Project, this initiative supports institutional leaders to safeguard upgraded facilities and newly installed equipment across technical colleges.
With similar approaches now being explored across other SKYE II focal states, leadership competencies are increasingly being embedded as a foundation for sustained TVET reform and improved employment outcomes.
Authors: Amile Terlumun and Tabitha Danjuma Kachalla; GIZ Nigeria
