The
Students’ Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) has been on the decline for
decades now that if drastic measure isn’t taken towards addressing the
lingering anomaly, the scheme is liable to go into extinction in no distant
time.
The SIWES is a skill acquisition initiative
designed to expose and prepare students of universities, polytechnics, monotechnics
as well as colleges of education for the industrial work situation they are
likely to encounter after graduation.
It was initiated to be a planned and
supervised training programme based on specific learning and career objectives
and geared toward developing the occupational competencies of the participants.
It is generic, cutting across over 60 programmes in the universities, over 40
in the polytechnics/monotechnics, and about 10 in the colleges of education.
It isn’t meant for a particular course
of study or discipline, though it was introduced mainly for the sake of technically-inclined
ones. Since inception, it is being
reckoned to be an innovative phenomenon in human resources development in
Nigeria.
While some institutions and disciplines
permit SIWES’ duration for only three to six months, others go for up to one
year. The programme, which permits the affected students to seek for Industrial
Training (IT) or Teaching Practice (TP), as the case may be, in any
establishment of their choice, has ab initio been a cause of concern to
education and economic planners, particularly with respect to graduate
employment and impact on the general societal development.
On the other hand, there are equally mixed
feelings among education stakeholders concerning how much of the programme that
is actually helpful to students’ academic performance and job readiness after
graduation.
Whatever positive impact the SIWES has thus
far created on the students’ wellbeing and the society at large, the truth is
that the primary purpose for which the programme was implemented has recently
been relegated to the background.
The prevalence of the inability of SIWES’
participants to secure employment after the pragramme, or even perform
adequately if eventually employed, casts doubt on the continuing relevance of
the programme to the contemporary industrial development drive in the Nigerian
society. This obvious lapse isn’t unconnected with negligence and/or apathy on
the part of the trainees, trainers, concerned institutions, and the government.
It’s noteworthy that most of these students
dodge the programme. They prefer indulging in activities that would fetch them
money to going for the technical knowledge. To this set of individuals,
partaking in the industrial programme is simply a waste of time and energy.
In view of this misconception, when
the programme is meant to take place, you would see them participating in all
sorts of inconsequential menial jobs or even gambling and what have you just
for the aim of raising some cash. This growing mentality of placing money
before knowledge has contributed immensely in endangering the prospect of the laudable
programme.
Those
who bring out time to participate in the programme, are prone to one challenge
or the other. It’s worth noting that greater percentage of the trainees is not paid
by the establishments in which they are serving, not even stipend.
Hence, they would end up making use of
their personal funds to service their transportation and accommodation fees.
It’s more worrisome to realize that most of these trainees are overused by the
firms. Rather than teaching them the needful, the supposed trainers would
engage them in unnecessary activities, thereby making them lose interest in the
actual training.
Worse still, most of the institutions
involved don’t show any concern. They do not cough up time to supervise the
students in their respective places of assignment. Ridiculously, in most cases,
the schools would remain ignorant of where the students are undergoing the
training till the duration of the programme elapses.
This particular loophole has over the
years served as an advantage to those who never participated in the programme.
In this case, during the SIWES defence, the affected student or anyone who have
dodged the programme would claim to have undergone the training in any
establishment of his/her choice, and the supposed supervisor would never bother
to ascertain the truth.
Inter alia, funding of the SIWES hasn’t been
encouraging in recent times. The Industrial Training Fund (ITF) – the body
responsible in the day-to-day funding of the initiative – currently appears
incapacitated, probably owing to lack of adequate allocation from the
government and other financiers. Sometimes, the students would be deprived of
the statutory allowance they are entitled to after the programme. Those who
were lucky to receive theirs had to wait for a long time.
The
SIWES is obviously yearning for resuscitation. The present apparent state of
moribund experienced by the scheme can only be properly addressed by revisiting
the extant Acts that bind it with a view to making amends where need be. Such step
would enable every authority involved to start seeing the initiative as a
priority towards the anticipated, or perhaps ongoing, economic diversification.
The said policy ought to categorically
specify what is expected of the trainee, trainer, school, as well as the
governments at all levels, as regards the sustenance of the scheme. Similarly,
there’s need for an exclusive viable law enforcement agency that would penalize
or prosecute any defaulter.
It’s indeed high time we revived this
technical-oriented initiative whose motive truly means well for nation
building. This can only be holistically actualized by changing all the flat
tyres that have succeeded in crippling the journey so far. Think about it!
Comrade Nwaozor, a tech expert, analyst & activist,
Twitter:
@mediambassador
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