GETTING THE RIGHT PLACE,
AT THE RIGHT TIME
FOR INDUSRIAL TRAINING
(IT) OR TEACHING PRACTICE (TP) PLACEMENT.
EBURUCHE,
O.C.BANITO
CEO, BNT CONSORTIUM
INTERNATIONAL
Industrial
training refers to placement of students for at least six to ten weeks in the
industry or organization inorder for them to apply their theoretical knowledge
in the actual career world (http://its.utm.my/itsv4/
). This definition is institution or nations’ educational-system-dependent as
some take a longer duration of up to twenty four (in the universities) to forty
eight weeks (in the polytechnics) i.e. six months to one year (obtainable in
Nigerian institutions). It is a temporary apprenticeship and mentoring process
required to structure the future of the career of a student into becoming a
master or professional. Industrial training is one of the main components in
the educational curriculum. In the faculty of education, it is referred to as
“Teaching Practice (TP)”. Students must pass through this scheme before they
are awarded their graduate certificates.
During industrial training, students will be placed in selected
organizations for a predetermined duration of time inorder for them to obtain
exposure in the career world and also for them to be able to relate what they
have learnt theoretically with real application. At the same time, students will be equipped
with the necessary preparation for working life such as exposure to numerous
aspects of social, interaction, cultural, work processes, corporate and
resource management in their career world.
Training
is a key factor in enhancing the efficiency and expertise of the workforce
(http://unilib.unl.edu/LPP/Ugwuanyi-Ezema.htm). The students’ industrial
training scheme prepares students for labor markets. It has become an
innovative phenomenon in human resources development and training all over the
globe. Among the objectives of this
program is to inculcate the spirit of professionalism into these students.
Students are expected to use this opportunity to improve or master some skills
and areas in their career.
WHAT INDUSTRIAL
TRAINING IS AND WHAT IT IS NOT.
Having
defined and stated the meaning and objectives of Students’ Industrial Training
Scheme, I will like to emphasize on what this program is and what it is not.
First, as earlier stated, it is meant for exposure to the work environment in
your career, to inculcate and build professionalism, to acquire the required
knowledge in the labour market, to acquaint oneself with work-processes in
his/her career, to acquaint oneself with corporate and resource management
skills. It gives room for social
interaction and learning, promotes cultural blend, and inculcates in us
positive mentality to carry out our expected responsibilities in our workplace(s).
It builds up our capacities such like in leadership, character, communication
and interpersonal, emotional, intellectual, management, administrative among
others. Industrial training gives you
the key to unlock your career potentials.
For instance, it gives you the privilege to carry out experiments and
even research which the academic environment would not have provided. It gives
you the opportunity for fieldwork where you gather knowledge in your career.
With this, Students’ Industrial Training Scheme is indispensible in building up
a professional.
During
the period of industrial training, most prospective students develop or work
with some misconceptions that do not apply in the program. One of which is that
most students set out for financial empowerment rather than practical knowledge
empowerment. These students do not set
this as a posterior objective rather they set it as a right and this had denied
most students the opportunity of benefiting from this scheme. In my own research in Nigeria, about 80% of
the students have this objective in place. How do I know this? Having been
around prospective IT students, I discovered that they always set priorities of
what to buy during their training period. Such things like laptops, palmtops, smartphones,
iPods and iPads, notebooks among other exorbitant materials. So, they expect to
work in an organization that will meet their financial focus with little or no
attention to the main objective of the program. As this happens, you discover
that most students work in areas outside their career just because they did not
set their priorities right and they can only have little or no professional
experience related to their career.
Secondly,
most students believe that IT period is a time to keep their study aside as
such they rarely make plan to correlate their theoretical knowledge to the
practical knowledge. This makes most
students lazy and lousy. Also most students perceive IT program as a privilege
for summer holidays and trips. Most students have lost their lives because of
this misconception. Most often, the
student leave the organization without giving information of their way
about. This program is not a time for
unprepared and unannounced visits and journeys. Also, my research had also
shown that most students believe that it is time of no instruction. So they
defy most of the instructions giving to them in their workplace. Some of them claim that they are not paid so
why will they give-in to every single instruction. WRONG!!! You must pass through
the mentoring and apprenticeship process before you become a professional or a
master. In essence, it takes instruction to be properly structured. More so,
most students take advantage of this opportunity to indulging in an unending
leisure and pleasure. This explains why
most students can not defend or correlate their training experience with their
career. Regrettably still, most students develop immoral attitudes and get into
immoral lives that sometimes, cost them their lives and/or career. For this scheme
to achieve its objectives, these anomalies must be checked and corrected.
KEY IMPORTANCE OF
INDUSTRIAL TRAINING
The
importance of this scheme can not be over-emphasized as it;
Ø Brings students to the
professional frontline in their career.
Ø Helps students to build strong
professional networks.
Ø Shapes the direction of the
students and generates hope and confidence in career.
Ø Promotes capacity building.
Ø Promotes academic zeal to keep
pursuing their career; and performance.
Ø Causes improvement and stability
in building a constructive labour-force.
Ø Promotes strict adherence to professional
and legislative career standards.
Ø Is a booster to the economic
value of the host organization in terms of profit and also promotes national
economic growth.
Ø Promotes shared labour in the work-process
structure of the host organization.
We
shall continue on this in our next update. Your comments are highly appreciated
on www.bntconsortiuminternational.blogspot.com.
You can share your industrial training experience with us as this will be
highly relevant to our prospective IT & TP students. We shall be very grateful if you can also list the areas
your company will be needing IT or TP students. You can also subscribe for updates on this
blog. Thanks for visiting our blog and please, stay connected for our next
update. For inquiries and support, please, send a mail to bntconsotium@gmail.com.