Help solve unemployment problem, VC urges Nigerian students

Prof. Sunday Ogunduyile, Vice-Chancellor, Olusegun Agagu University of Science and Technology (OAUSTECH), Okitipupa, Ondo State, has urged students to help Nigeria solve its unemployment problems.

The vice-chancellor gave this advice on Tuesday during the Seventh Students’ Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) orientation programme, organised for the institution’s graduating students.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that SIWES started in 1973 as a skill acquisition programme designed to expose and prepare tertiary institution students studying prescribed courses to the industrial work situation they are likely to meet after graduation.

Ogunduyile urged them to combine their theoretical knowledge with the practical experience they had gained to create their own jobs and contribute to the country’s economy.

The vice-chancellor said that OAUSTECH had embedded entrepreneurial skills aquisition in its SIWES to give students added advantage to be able to stand on their own and build their own future.

“SIWES, under my administration in the past four years, has witnessed sporadic transformation in all spheres because of its indispensable role in the academic pursuit of students.

“Entrepreneurship is now part of the scheme because the skills gained during the scheme are presently being evaluated, as part of requirements for successful completion of the scheme.

“I, therefore, urge students to key into the various opportunities and create very strong passion for gaining practical knowledge in their various fields so as to start building their own future now,” Ogunduyile said.

Similarly, Dr Dipo Akomolafe, the acting Director of SIWES in the institution, said that many students had used the opportunity of SIWES to become their own business owners.

He urged the intending students to key into the same opportunity in order to bridge the unemployment gap in the country.

Akomolafe said that the institution had trust and confidence in the students that they would improve on the excellence for which the institution was noted.

“SIWES is an opportunity for students to gather more knowledge in their respective fields of specialization, and I will advise them to be fully committed to it and do it as prescribed by law.

“They should be attentive and respectful in order to gain more knowledge so that at the end of the day, they will become their own bosses, because we don’t train students to look for white collar job but to become owners of businesses,” Akomolafe said.

He added that the challenges of securing placements for growing number of students had been solved by the institution, particularly with the cordial relationship it had established with many industries across the country.

The SIWES director urged the students to be good ambassadors of the institution and ensure that they raised the bar, anywhere they found themselves.

NAN reports that SIWES is a tripartite programme, involving students, institutions and employers of labour, funded by the Federal Government and jointly coordinated by Industrial Training Fund (ITF) and National Universities Commission (NUC).