SWEP for Engineering Students Kicks off

The University’s College of Science and Technology has successfully flagged off its 3rd Student’s Work Experience Programme (SWEP) for its engineering students.

The programme, which commenced on Monday, August 21, 2006, involves over four hundred and twenty 200-level students drawn from all programmes in Engineering, namely: Computer Engineering, Information & Communication Technology, Electrical & Electronics Engineering, Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Petroleum Engineering. It is expected to last for six weeks, during which the students will be given practical exposure in key aspects of engineering.

The Vice Chancellor, Prof Aize Obayan while declaring the programme open, said SWEP was designed not only to expose the students to skills acquisition but also inculcate in them the development of right team spirit as well as expose them to rudimentary expectations for the world of work.

She urged the students to abide by the safety rules and measures in their various places of assignment, enjoining them to ensure that all necessary safety kits and gadgets are used for all aspects of the programme.

The Vice Chancellor, who expressed optimism that this year’s SWEP would be better than that of the previous with more validating testimonies and products, urged the Heads of Departments to ensure that they articulate and drive the plans for this year’s programme, which she said was quite impressive.

The Dean of the College, Prof Ekundayo Adeyemi had earlier in his welcome address at the occasion, said that though SWEP was designed only for Engineering and Technology students, his College would want students of Environmental Technology such as in Architecture and Building Technology to be part of the programme. “Engineers and indeed Architecture and Building students should be initiated into the culture of work-overalls and into a work-ethic that recognizes hand-skills as a pre-requisite for a successful professional life”, Prof Adeyemi pointed out.

He also said although SWEP had been a College activity, having a credit weighting to it, that its import had University-wide implications as it articulates those values, which the University stood for, especially with regard to transforming mathematics to lifematics.

Objectives of the programme according to the Dean include the following:

• exposing the students to all aspects of engineering practice;
• developing the students’ innovative and creative abilities and skills relevant to their programme;
• engaging the students in manual labour so that they can appreciate the dignity of labour and also make them engineers and professionals of excellence in the future;
• developing in the students, a logical mode of thinking and reasoning that promotes a practical application of acquired theoretical, knowledge in overcoming technical and professional challenges; and
• training the students on how to acknowledge and appreciate the numerous professional challenges of their immediate environment and the society at large and offer solutions, which their knowledge empowerment avails them.

The Coordinator of the Programme, Prof James Kentende, said the programme would be restricted to numerous ongoing projects and functional establishments and workshops in Canaanland and on the University campus. The establishments where the students would serve, according to him, include: the Printing Press, Hebron Water Plant, the Bakery, Canaanland Mass Transit Limited (CLMT), Faith Tabernacle, Network Operation Centre (NOC), the Wood mill, the Batching Plant and the Metal fabrication workshop. Others are the Hostels, Water works, the Public health Unit (sewage and waste disposal), Road works, the Cafeteria, CST Workshops, the CSIS, Special community projects, Generator stations, Power substations and the Parks/Gardens unit (Lawn mowing).
 

Other University officials present at the opening event were the Registrar, Yemi Nathaniel, the Dean Student Affairs, Dr Rotimi Daniel, Heads of Departments of Estate Management, Electrical & Information Engineering, Architecture and Computer & Information Sciences.