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After 5 to 6 years of hard "mental" labour, torture of "wicked" lecturers and hard-coded textbooks and intriguing or should I say "maze-like" lectures, the Nigerian "engineering" student finally graduates and enters into the labour market looking more confused than when he obtained his admission into the University.
This is something that has kept me wondering at how such a nice profession is left off in the dark. Right from that day he or she gained admission into the University, she was left alone to fend for herself, with little or no guidance. Why? He is perceived as an "engineering" student who came to school to study difficult textbooks and why should she require guidance? Shouldn't he have known that Engineering is for the tough-minded?
It is so sad how young enthusiastic Nigerian students are mentally harassed on their way to acquiring desired knowledge and skills for their desired future. That one is for another day's discourse.
Engineering is a great profession that has great advantages for the socio-economic development of the country. Engineering will create companies, industries and the right virtuous-cycle that would continue to generate "power" and livelihood for millions in the country and even to network the continent onto more economic prowess and prosperity. Engineering is the life-blood to other professions such as medicine, legal, political, agriculture, etc. Since, no country or race or people can survive with no infrastructure, no race, country or people can truly survive without "engineering". I am putting engineering in quotes because it encompasses such other fields as physics, mathematics, architecture, construction, building, etc in addition to main stream engineering disciplines.
So back to my main gist. The engineering student is left to "float" throughout his University career and then he or she faces the "cold" wicked reality of the employment market. I often admired the medical professions while at school since they have the advantage of having the GAP between academia and industry "bridged" through well-structured associations and organizations like NMA(Nigeria Medical Associations), Nigeria Dental Associations, and other such associations in the fields of pharmacy, etc. Yes, their is the NUESA in school, but it is not as well articulated and structured like the others I just mentioned.
Most of us, after grad, had to navigate through the "woods" of the Nigerian employment or labour market with little and zero guidance. Thank G-d we somehow fixed the missing links in this great maze through some sorts of "trial and errors". Unfortunately, those small trials and errors took toll on TIME and sometimes impeded our SPEED in moving up the ladder of industry leadership.
On hindsight, I look at my journey from University into Industry with great amazement at how I survived those "hurdles" that the lecturers in school never prepared me well to face. Yes, they created and produced lots of handouts, theories and theorems, etc, etc which has no bearing towards being successful in the industry. I have already mentioned about the huge gap that exist between Academia and Industry in one of my blogs. I will not take that journey here.
In this article, I like to challenge industry leaders, academic experts, policy-makers, political power brokers, all and sundry to pool their resources might together to save the engineering profession in Nigeria, and thereby save the country's future. Think of it, all the socio-economic policies that government is designing, pursuing and following all hing on the solid foundation of good engineering.
So the "engineering" student graduates into the labour market and he is faced with the following options "Banking and Insurance", "Oil & Gas", "Medicals", "Telecoms" and what else? So narrow a field of choice that his potentials are wasted. He might end up as a good "banker" and the Infrastructure decay continues. He was developed to help solve the "power" , construction and other infrastructure-based challenges, but now that dream is gone with the wind. He now grows on to pursue other areas of business just to ensure "ends meet". After all, he must sustain his family and dependents. "Man must wack". He is sustained but the MACRO environment is not. The country loses out on his genius. He might even fly out of the country and use his mental power to strengthen the GDP of a foreign nation. So we have now trained him to help, not our country, but to help a foreign country. This reveals great weaknesses in our Education Road-map or Strategic Planning. This ought to stop.
I believe for the 4-year based tenure of our political government strategic planning and execution, each year should receive a minimum of 40% boost in GDP from "engineering" students, who would strongly contribute to Nigeria Infrastructure Upgrade and Capacity Building in such a way as to sustain Government economic and productivity plans. We must work fast to arrest this "brain-drain" or human capital leakage that we are suffering from.
We should re-plan our Educational System for Utility such that our curricula should base based not on theories but on real practical professions that could drive up our productivity, increase the number and levels of entrepreneurs, sustain industries, and not just "push out" job-seekers.
This is a challenge that both ACADEMIA, INDUSTRY LEADERS and GOVERNMENT POLICY-LEADERS should sit in a common forum and map out strategies of "funneling-back-in" our great human resource and capacity , in such a way as to boost INDUSTRIALIZATION, and make Nigeria an economic power dynamo for the rest of Africa.
Let us help rebuild the Engineering profession today, and save our common National Infrastructures and Super-Structures.
Have a nice day!