**1. Introduction**

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education started gaining prominence in Nigeria's education system with the introduction of the 6-3-3-4 system of education in the 1980s. Therefore, in the formulation of her educational policies, much attention was drawn to this important aspect of education, such as curriculum restructuring from basic to tertiary education, provision of science laboratory equipment to schools, increased funding for STEM-related

programmes, including overseas scholarship for STEM-based students, teachers and researchers, among others. The importance attached to STEM Education has not changed as Nigeria, in the last few decades, has witnessed educational reforms in favour of STEM, in view of repositioning the education sector of the economy to deliver its mandate, considering her choice of education as a veritable tool for national development. The recent trends in Nigeria's educational reforms have witnessed the government and stakeholders showing much concern for STEM Education. Relevant stakeholders in education, especially those at the level of formulating, regulating and implementing educational policies, increasingly design programmes that draw the interest of school children to STEM-related academic disciplines and careers. This was equally followed by the establishment of Science schools at the secondary school level, while a good number of Science-related courses were mounted across Nigeria's tertiary education institutions. The idea was to train the younger generations with critical thinking and inventive abilities to grow Nigeria's economy as a country endowed with an abundance of natural resources.

Another area in the education sector that was given top priority in the 1980s, after STEM Education, is Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET). Interestingly, Nigeria, in response to global trends at the outset of the new millennium, increased the tempo in terms of priority given to TVET. Therefore, one of the action plans to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) was to expand TVET delivery systems in order to provide the needed skills to the younger generation in particular and empower them to create wealth. This was to ensure that they were productive and remained job and wealth creators. The emphasis on TVET, a broadbased discipline drawn from technical and vocational educational clusters, covers a broad range of subjects from basic to tertiary education levels.

Significantly, too, between the 1980s and late 1990s, emphasis on STEM was expanded to embrace TVET. However, in the early 2000s, Nigeria's attention to TVET saw the establishment of more technical colleges and the introduction of TVET courses at the tertiary education levels. Thus, regular and recent revisions of the National Policy on Education have been to accommodate these newly adapted subsectors of education, having recognised their potency in the production of graduates needed to drive Nigeria's natural and human resources potentials to shower economic development and sustainability.

This chapter further addresses concerns in STEM Education and TVET as crosscutting courses in Nigeria's education system, Nigeria's educational reforms with STEM and TVET, practical approaches and regulatory agencies required for reforms in STEM and TVET, structural comparison of STEM and TVET, funding as a vehicle to effective STEM Education and TVET, pedagogical approaches, practical inclination and collaborative strategies for the future of STEM Education and TVET are harnessed in this chapter.
