Olatunji Misturah
As popular, a major concept that distinguishes polytechnics from universities is the emphasis on practical. And one program that goes a long way to facilitate this in the polytechnic is the Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES).
For the records, SIWES is a training programme that helps students gain practical knowledge of what they have been taught in their lecture rooms. It enables them to acquire knowledge and experience beyond the four walls of the classroom for the period of 13 weeks while putting in place thorough supervision via the visitation of lecturers from the school.
It does not stop here as students are, however, asked to justify the results of their 13 weeks programme via an arranged defence-sitting so as to be sure that they actually underwent the training to the complement of the results they got.
Academically, SIWES holds a boost to the grades of students as it is a four-unit course which carries a huge percentage of their Grade point (G.P).
SIWES has significantly helped scholars and professionals of today achieve a whole lot as by virtue of it, they were able to understand the fundamentals of their course of study at a very tender stage of their life, and that helped them channel their movement and work towards achieving the necessary.
Like an adage says, experience is the best teacher, and this can be proven in various scenarios such as: human beings writing good of what they imagined, writing better of what they were told and writing best of what they experienced. Experience holds a great impact on us and that is why it is considered as very important.
For instance, in the present world that we are in, if a student from the department of Science Laboratory Technology (SLT) is able to describe the process of blood testing or blood sampling verbatim without errors but unable to put those theories into practice in the laboratory, such student might not get the prize of a job well done because they lack practical knowledge. Another instance is a Mass Communication/Journalism student who can explain the rules guiding the conduct of interview, headline casting or news reporting and such student finds it difficult putting it into practice.
This is where SIWES comes to play. This is the ground where the emphasis on SIWES cannot be considered excessive. To ensure students meet the standard requirements in the work setting, SIWES gives them a platform to prepare themselves for that aside the theory taught in class.
The continuity of SIWES and its sister, Industrial Training (I.T) in various institutions across the country is, therefore, non-negotiable. Needless to say, students should start taking the training seriously and consider it a golden opportunity in their lifetime that must not be misused.
Olatunji Misturah is a Writer and an ND2 Mass Communication student of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic.
