INTERVIEW: MAPOLY Has Digitized SIWES Scheme To Ensure Optimization – Dr. Popoola

In this interview with the duo of ZAINAB IBRAHIMand MORIDIYAH MOMODU, Engr. (Dr.) Popoola Mansur, the Director, Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES), Moshood Abiola Polytechnic (MAPOLY), Abeokuta, speaks on the importance of SIWES training in the career development of MAPOLY students and his vision to reform the internship programme. Dr. Popoola, a Chief lecturer in the Department of Civil Engineering talked about his journey since assumed office as the SIWES Director in January, 2025. Excerpts:

Could you explain the role of SIWES in the academic and professional development of MAPOLY students?

SIWES simply means, Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme. SIWES is to interface between the theoretical works in the classroom and the field work, which is the practical work. It is an interface for them to have a practical knowledge of what they are being taught in the classrooms, and go to the field to physically experience how applicable what they are been taught is technically. It is also to let them have a better idea of their chosen profession, making it easy for them to have a seamless progression from the classroom work and to the field generally.

How important is industrial training to the Polytechnic’s overall educational objectives?

I wouldn’t want to restrict it to MAPOLY, because SIWES is not only meant for MAPOLY students, it is being done generally by all tertiary institutions. So, just to tell you the importance of SIWES; it is for them to have the industrial experience of what they were taught theoretically in the classroom and its application on-field by the time they get to the working environment. And it is also very key for the students to be able to move directly from the classroom onto the field, and it also gives them an opportunity to have an interaction with experience and their professional senior colleagues in the field. We do actually see the improvement, the better understanding, and also the passion for their discipline, by the time they are returning back for the ND 2. Because at that point, they will have really understood what it means to choose a particular profession.

How does the SIWES Directorate secure placement opportunities for students?

Directorate of SIWES does not secure placement for students, we give them letter of introduction to go out and secure their placement by themselves. Our own duty and responsibilities is to make sure that wherever they secured is relevant to their discipline. We also make sure that whichever placement organization that they are bringing back to us exists and functional, and we are very sure that it will impact practical knowledge onto our students. So, it is not we that we secure places for them. We give them introduction letter, and we make sure we give the introduction letter way ahead of time, so that they have enough time to find and secure their SIWES placement before they start the programme.

What criteria does the polytechnic use in determining whether an organization is suitable for accepting SIWES students?

Like I’ve said, we are not the one that secure SIWES placement for our students. This year alone, we have more than one thousand SIWES placements. Our students are spread all across the southwest. We usually try to limit the placement within Lagos, Ogun and Oyo States and this is because of the proximity, so that by the time we want to go on visitation we still have it within the area of proximity that we can visit.

What happens when students are unable to secure placements related to their field of study?

That’s rare to come by, because a Mass Communication student will not come back to tell me that in the space of 3 months given to them to secure a placement, he or she could not secure one of the many radio and TV stations available, and newspaper organizations for attachment. The same thing applies to management students, like Business Administration, Accountancy, or probably a student of Engineering. It is very rare that a student will come and tell us that he does not secure placement. The only thing I usually notice is that some of them secure irrelevant placement, which we reject and tell them to look for another placement. But at worst, if a student does not secure a placement, then the last resort is for them to have it within the school community.

What mechanisms are in place to prevent students from merely obtaining SIWES acceptance letters without undergoing the training?

We pay unscheduled visits to them, so, if by the time we pay the unscheduled visit, because the visit is unusually supposed to be done by the SIWES directorate. Their respective department will also pay them visit, possibly we would have sent their information to the ITF office, and the ITF will also pay them unscheduled visits. These are the mechanism put in place to ensure that the students acquire the necessary training during the SIWES.

What are the major complaints you receive from students concerning their industrial training?

For now the only challenge we have is our students’ attitude towards the placement and few organizations are trying to extort the students, and we are trying to correct that within our means. If the students should report that the organization is extorting them by asking them to pay a particular amount for one reason or the other, then we intervene. And I’ve told them that there is no reason why an organization should ask you to pay, so if such thing is reported to us, we immediately withdraw our students from such places. And another thing we try to do is to make sure that a particular organization has a limited number of students for their SIWES because some of the organizations take advantage of that, and admit as many students in which they do not have facility to accommodate those numbers of students. We have regulated that and make sure our students do not concentrate in a particular place. We make sure they are spread across various organizations that are relevant to their discipline.

How does the directorate assess the quality of training students receive from their employers?

Like I said earlier, we pay unscheduled visit to them, from there, we make our own assessments at the end of the training. The organizations are given the privilege to also assess our students based on their punctuality, attitude to work, mode of dressing and creativity. Another very major important one is the students will have to fill their log book regularly to tell us their daily activities. They also have a technical report to be written, based on all what they learnt during the process during the 3 months SIWES exercise. All the experience gathered they are going to put it in that report and by the time they return back to school, they are going to defend everything they learnt, and everything they put down in their technical report. So, we give the overall performance of the student at the end of the exercise.

Do you believe the skills students acquire during SIWES adequately prepare them for today’s labor market?

During the SIWES orientation, we usually advise our students to take the training seriously, because it helps their development and career. During their three months SIWES training, some of them build network and connection. Some organizations employ the student for their one year industrial attachment and subsequently a permanent employment, based on the attitude and contribution of such student. Some of the students build their career growth during SIWES and we have good testimony of that. So, the SIWES is a stepping stone, which I always advise the students to take the full advantage of it, as the bedrock for their choosing profession.

How does the Directorate deal with students who fail to take their industrial training seriously?

We have everything in place. The industry evaluates the students, the coordinators that pay them visit will evaluate them too, and the students too will come before us to really defend what they have learnt, what experience they were able to gather. At the end of the day if the student could not make it, that means the student will have to repeat the training because it is a 4 unit course and that is carry over. Majorly, the evaluation is not only on academic, but also on character, discipline, so any student found wanting, necessary measures is being taken to penalize such student.

What reforms have you introduced to improve the industrial work experience of MAPOLY students?

We are simply trying to improve things in terms of monitoring, in terms of proper record of our students. I think we have improved on that and the major shift that we have now, is that we have gone digital. Our students register for their SIWES online and that afford the directorate to be able to actually monitor our students when they are starting their SIWES and when they get their clearance. So, it affords us the opportunity to document their record and personal details. And another major shift is that, we have been able to now include all the departments within the school to now participate in the SIWES exercise. Initially, the SIWES is usually for science-based departments, but since I assumed office, I have ensured that, management students in Accountancy, Business Administration, Civil Engineering, Banking and Finance also partake in the SIWES training. This is because all students are expected to have practical experience and exposure in their respective field of study.

What is your vision for SIWES at MAPOLY in the next two years?

In the next two to three years in MAPOLY, we will have a pool of organization that we would be sending our students to. Also, I wish by then, we would have gone online fully to adequately monitor the activities of our students on SIWES. So with that, even right from our office, we would be able to fully monitor their activities and regulate whatever they are doing. That is very important. As it is now, we are improving, but we are not there yet.