The vision of the Industrial Training Funds, when it initiated the Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) in 1973, was the provison of an avenue for students to acquire practical industrial exposure in their respectives disciplines during the
course of their studies. Such exposure, it was envisaged, would prepare students to fit, more readily, into an industrial work enviroment after their academic carrier. The scheme was also designed to offer lecturers the oppurtunity to evaluate the relevance of the training to the needs of industry.
The scheme commenced in 1974 with eleven(11) institutions. By 1978, when the number of intitution had grown fron eleven to thirty two(32), the ITF was forced to reduce the number of approved programmes to engineering and technology desciple in universities, polytechniques and colleges of technology. In 1979, the Federal Ministry of Education made it compulsary for students of Polytechnics and Colleges of Technology to undergo one year industrial attachment. This new arrangement created a financial burden which was too high to be shouldered by ITF. The scheme is a tripartite programme involving the students, the universities and the industry (employers of labor). It is funded by the Federal Government of Nigeria and jointly coordinated by the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) and the National Universities Commission (NUC). The student’s industrial work experience scheme (SIWES) is an essential part of the preparation by student for a Bachelor of Degree in the participating faculties and departments. The successful completion of the scheme is a requirement for graduation. Industrial training therefore should be taken seriously and not treated as a mere vacation job.
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