In 2015, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu established Abia State Education for Employment (E4E) programme to harness and maximise the human resource capital base of the State, grow the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector of the economy and improve the State’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR)
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The programme has grown to become an agency and has attracted two World Bank assisted projects to support its objectives.
One of the major objectives of the Agency since 2015, is the development of the State’s Technical Colleges in terms of physical infrastructure, quality of the teachers and adequacy of equipment for training.

The Governor’s first intervention was in Boys Technical College, Aba where he fenced the walls, provided a dedicated transformer and restored electricity after seven years. He also refurbished existing buildings and completed new ones.

It is in recognition of all his efforts in this area, that the Federal Ministry of Education through the World Bank decided to support the development of at least three of these colleges to World Class standard through the Innovation Development Effectiveness in the Acquisition of Skills (IDEAS) project.

To ensure best outcomes, the Governor sent Mr Endi Ezengwa, the Director General of Abia State Education for Employment Agency, who is also the Focal Person for IDEAS project to engage the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) of the Philippines.

The aim is to establish an exchange programme for the training of technical teachers in other to meet the acute shortage of requisite personnel in Technical Colleges in the State. TESDA is behind the success story of skilled Filipinos meeting various human resource needs of organisations all over the world.

The Nigerian Embassy in the Philippines, acting on the Governor’s request is ensuring that these objectives are met.