Posted by Guardian on
In a strategic bid to check the dwindling standard of education in the country, stakeholders in the nation's educational sector are set to scrap the three months and one year industrial work experience (SIWES) scheme in tertiary institutions.....
In a strategic bid to check the dwindling standard of education in the country, stakeholders in the nation's educational sector are set to scrap the three months and one year industrial work experience (SIWES) scheme in tertiary institutions.
The Director-General of the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Prof. Olu Akerejola who disclosed this to reporters on Wednesday in Ibadan, stated that already the Fund and stakeholders in the university and the polytechnic education sector in the country are to meet in Lokoja in July 2006 to ratify the suitability or otherwise of the industrial training programme.
The ITF boss who led his management team to a workshop at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in the state capital expressed regrets that the SIWES scheme as presently constituted is inconsistent with modern challenges. He noted that most students who were supposed to be on the compulsory one year industrial training end up not getting a placement, thereby defeating the purpose for which the scheme was intended. As a replacement for the industrial training, Akerejola said a new arrangement which would uphold institutionalised industrial training scheme would be worked out.
Under the new arrangement, the ITF boss pointed out that each tertiary institution would be required to develop an in-house training system for its students where their skills would be better harnessed and exploited.