As a way of rejigging the practice of the engineering profession in the country and make practitioners more skilful and innovative, the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria(COREN), has promised stiffer policy in granting of accreditations for the running of engineering courses in the Nigerian universities.
The regulatory body posited that there was a need to bring a paradigm shift to the profession by ensuring that it sets a standard that would ensure that all university students acquire the requisite skills that would make them more innovative and suitable to operate under the 21st-century economy.
The COREN’s Registrar, Professor Joseph Odigure, said this in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti state capital during the closing of a four-day regional train-the-trainers workshop for implementation of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) in Engineering programmes in Nigerian Universities held at the Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti (ABUAD).
Odigure said the workshop, attended by eight engineering undergraduates from each of the universities located in Ekiti, Osun, and Ondo states, was meant to expose the students to the imperative of fully practising the profession, rather than following the long-standing theory trends.
He added that COREN, a professional body empowered to accredit training institutions and regulate the practice of engineers, technologists, technicians and craftsmen won’t shirk in its responsibility to ensure that the new generation engineers have the skills that can ignite innovations to drive a technologically based economy.
On the proposed policy for universities, Odigure stated that there was a need to strengthen the accreditation system for engineering in universities for the purpose of producing graduates that would meet local and international demands to be attainable.
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Odigure averred that the rapid pace of globalisation and emerging technologies globally, make it necessary for engineering faculties to be properly regulated for local and international recognition of certificates obtained from Nigerian higher institutions.
He said: “By implementing OBE, students are expected to be able to do more challenging tasks, rather than memorise what was taught. This implies that tertiary education could provide both professional knowledge /skills and all-around attributes to their graduates through the OBE approach.
“In addition, OBE helps to empower a workforce that can compete in a global economy of the 21st century as it equips learner to transfer academic success to life in a complex, challenging and high-technology future.
“We observed that many of our engineering graduates don’t secure jobs easily, so with OBE, they can get the required skills, knowledge and attitudes to operate independently. We want to see a system whereby lecturers would be able to teach students to get an expected output not just teaching based on the curriculum alone.
“We want to engage the local artisans and craftsmen, they too have skills so that they can partner with the academics for engineering development, they have to join the engineering revolution.
“Let us finetune the delivery in engineering. Let us have engineering that is more friendly and that can impact skills to face the challenges of the 21st century for global development.”
Elaborating more on Outcome-Based Education(OBE), Odigure stated that it is an approach to education that focuses on specific attributes in terms of knowledge, skill and attitudes that must be exhibited by students.
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COREN promises stiffer policy on accreditation of engineering courses in varsities
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COREN promises stiffer policy on accreditation of engineering courses in varsities
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