RELEVANCE OF INDUSTRIAL TRAINING IN PREPARING BUSINESS EDUCATION STUDENTS FOR OFFICE OCCUPATION IN EBONYI STATE, NIGERIA

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Students Industrial Work Experience (SIWES) is a skill development programme designed to prepare students of Nigeria tertiary institutions for transition from the college environment to work environment  ( Akerejola 2008) stated thatSIWES is also an effect to bridge the existing gap between theory and practical and expose students  to necessary skills for smooth from classroom the world of work . (Nse 2012).

          SIWES is also an effort to bridge the existing gap between theory and practice and expose students to necessary skills for smooth transition from classroom to the world. It enable students acquire technical skills and experience for professional development in their study. Before the inception of the scheme there was a growing concern among Nigerian industrialist that graduate from the institution of higher learning lacked adequate practical experience necessary for employment.

Furthermore, the schemes expose the students to work methods and prepare them in safeguarding the work area and other workers in the industry. A centre focus of the scheme is to enlist and strengthen employer’s involvement in the educational process of preparing students for the world of work. The scheme is therefore aimed at exposing students to fill the gap which exist between theory and practical.   The relevance of student work programme on skill development, which in turn, impacts directly on national development objectives.

The students industrial work experience scheme (SIWES) is a planned and supervised training intervention based on state and specific learning andobjective and geared towards developing the occupation competencies of the participants.  It is a programme required to be undertake   by all students of Tertiary Institutions Nigeria pursing courses in specialized engineering,Technical Business Education, Pure and Applied Science and Applied artsITF (2004).

The student Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) is a programme designed to expose and prepare students in the institutions of  higher learning for the industry work situation ,the scheme affords students the opportunity   of handling  machinery and equipment which are usually not available in the Educational Institutions. (SIWES) was introduced by Ministry of Commerce and Industry Training Fund (ITF) in Nigeria in the year (1973) about 41 years ago. It was then limited to students of technology. Currently, students of many other disciplines participate in industrial training including business education students. Business Education is an aspect of vocational study that prepares the students for both teaching and office occupation .The students of Business Education also go for I. T. to acquire skills that will equip them for office occupation.

 Hassan (2012) opined that if Vocational Technical Education is to be meaningful and successful in Nigeria, then relationships are needed between public and private sectors to partner effectively with Vocational Technical Education and skill acquisition programme.

SIWES is very important programme which the students are expected to benefit from, if it will be implemented. Unfortunately it has been observed by many researchers including Obasi (2015) there some set back to the achievement of the goals of SIWES. This explains the reason for this research work. The research intended to determine the relevance of SIWES to students, society and employer.

Aims and objectives of Business Education:

Business Education has two main objectives to educate for business and about business. It is generally believed that business education in the first place should prepare students for entry level employment in the business. It is concerned with the area of knowledge and competencies needed by everyone the knowledge, skills, abilities, understanding and attitudes that enable students to become worthy human beings and effective members of the business community.

Occupation: may be refer to a person’s job, his or her role in society , often a regular activity performed for payment.

Office: an office is generally a room or other area where administrative work  is done by an organization’s users in order to  support and realize objectives  and goals of the organization.

Statement of the problem

students on their own part have discovered that what most of the supervisors are after is how you  can defend your SIWES report rather than how to make use of the scheme and maximize their abilities, knowledge and skills in regards to their profession.

   Not all students sent on SIWES are paid, some are even asked to pay money to be accepted to do their Industrial Training programme.

      If the aims of SIWES are not achieved students will end up knowing the theoretical aspect of what they study, and have little or idea about the practical aspect of it. Thereby cannot gain employment or provide employment for the society.  So the aim of this study is to expose students to have knowledge of the theoretical aspect of what they study and also have the knowledge of practical aspect of what they study.

Purpose of the study

The main purpose of this study is toInvestigate the relevance of the Students Industrial Work Experience scheme (SIWES) to the Business Education students specifically.

The specific purpose includes the following:

•  To ascertained the responsibilities of the employer to the students.
• To determine the hindrances to effective participation of the students in industrial training programme.