A roofing company, Plusworld Roofing and Restoration, has revealed plans to train artisans, graduates and secondary school leavers on Roofsheet Maintenance Technology.

The company launched an academy to help tackle unemployment and under-employment in Nigeria.

The Chief Executive Officer of Plusworld Roofing and Restoration, Dr John Igbaifua, revealed that the academy is targeting 10,000 participants in the next five years.

Igbaifua, who lamented the surge in Nigeria’s unemployment index, explained that the academy will provide an alternative for people by training them on all roofline works which includes roof design, installation, repairs, restoration, maintenance, and waterproofing.

He hinted that the skills participants would gain from the program are highly sought after in the real estate, construction, oil and gas industry and even amongst homeowners.

He added, “The Plusworld Roofing Academy was born out of necessity and out of concern to contribute to our country’s economy, empower the youth to break the paradox of unemployment, and bring professionalism into the roofing sector.

“We all know that the statistics about unemployment and underemployment are very alarming; most of the problem is unskilled labour.

Being a practitioner in the roofing and real estate industry, one of the problems that we suffered is that of poor quality of materials and, workmanship. So, we have many people who are not properly trained and not certified to work.

“The plan with Plusworld Roofing Academy is to create a platform where artisans, young school leavers, graduates, and even people in the construction industry that want to upgrade their skills in Roof Maintenance Technology would be trained on how to be a professional roofer, waterproofing specialist, roof restoration specialist and this will come with international certification at a discounted fee.

Plusworld is the only roofing academy in Nigeria at the moment. The sole aim of the academy is to train people in roof line work which include roof design, restoration, maintenance, waterproofing, and management.

“This is a niche kind of business in a niche industry because as you all know, Plusworld pioneered roof maintenance technology and roof restoration in Nigeria if not the whole of Africa.

“We will be training them on how to be roof restoration experts, structural waterproofing and HSE professionals.”

“We do not only teach them these skills, but we also help them become entrepreneurs. We have a module called Roofing Business Management; we would teach and guide them on how to set up companies of their own after the training.

“We would support them by ensuring that we push business their way. Another benefit of registering with Plusworld Academy is that immediately after participants are done with the training, they become our technical and business agents and earn money for it.”

The program manager, Christian Emeodi, also said the training session is for six weeks, filled with theoretical and practical classes.

He maintained that the participants will be trained on modules which include; safety, introduction to roof and roofing systems, introduction to roof maintenance and repairs, structural waterproofing, roof business management, and roof restoration.

He stressed, “The first week is for theoretical classes, and the second week is for practical classes where we expose our students to best practices in roof painting, washing, installation, maintenance, and roof measurements amongst others.

“For the remaining four weeks, each student must spend 160hrs with us and partners under our apprentice and attachment scheme.”

Credit: Punch