Activity under preparation EART - Enhancing Agricultural and Rural TVET in Nigeria <p class="ql-align-justify">The demographic boom that Nigeria is experiencing confronts the authorities with the challenge of integrating an ever-increasing number of young people into the labor market, particularly in rural areas affected by the urban exodus. In this context, the project aims at contributing to the Nigerian government's social agenda in terms of job creation, poverty reduction and agricultural productivity to promote food security through skills development in agricultural value chains. An active participation of women (accounting for the biggest share of workers in the sector and mainly in informal jobs) will be sought for, as well as promoting the best environmental standards to ensure the sustainability of agricultural practices and their resilience to climate change.</p><p class="ql-align-justify">The proposed ATVET Project is a <strong>five-year investment project</strong> which focuses on the provision of agricultural technical and vocational education and training (ATVET) through programs offered in selected pre-tertiary formal agricultural related training institutions and informal agricultural apprenticeship. The major thrust of the project is to ensure smooth and efficient transition of the graduates to wage and/or self-employment in rural areas. The Project has a development objective to contribute to Nigeria Government¿s social agenda of<strong> job creation, poverty reduction and agricultural productivity</strong> with focus on <strong>Benue, Plateau and Oyo States</strong>. The project fosters a demand driven approach for technical and vocational skills development in the agricultural sector, with active women¿s participation and promotion of best environmental standards to ensure sustainability and resilience towards climate change. The program is foreseen as a pilot phase for the 3 selected States that <strong>could be replicated to other interested States </strong>based on the results achieved.</p><p class="ql-align-justify"><br></p><p class="ql-align-justify">The project is structured around three main objectives and components:</p><ol><li data-list="ordered" class="ql-align-justify"><span class="ql-ui" contenteditable="false"></span><strong>Component 1:</strong> Modernisation of selected agricultural institutions in the three States through <strong>renovation of the agricultural institutions</strong>, equipping them with requisite modern equipment (AFD)</li><li data-list="ordered" class="ql-align-justify"><span class="ql-ui" contenteditable="false"></span><strong>Component 2</strong>: Improvement of the quality of training and transition from training to work through <strong>improvement of the quality of training</strong> in line with climate resilience challenges (in State agricultural training Institutions), <strong>training of trainers</strong>, support to <strong>renovation of curriculum</strong> (development and validation of occupational standards) and capacity strengthening of management of the training institutions; support to the <strong>socio-professional integration and settlement of trained youths</strong>, and support to the innovation and growth of income generating activities (continuing training, services provision and sales of products (<strong>AFD + EU</strong>)</li><li data-list="ordered"><span class="ql-ui" contenteditable="false"></span><strong>Component 3</strong>: Provision of governance and implementation tools for project management as well as <strong>policy framework to create enabling environment</strong> to support quality and relevant agricultural technical and vocational skills development and improve the perception for youth and female to participate in agriculturall technical and vocational skills development (AFD)</li></ol>