PROBLEMS FACED BY YOUNG ENGINEERS IN NIGERIA
Young aspiring and even students currently studying engineering in Nigeria go through challenges in the Engineering sector because the country has refuse to constantly check the challenges the student will face after graduation.
Below are some of the expected challenges
1. NOT BEING EXPOSED TO PRACTICALS:
For a student studying engineering in a university, the practical aspect of his course should cover at least 60 percent of his syllabus while the theoretical aspect should take approximately 40 percent. But in most Nigerian universities, the reverse is practically the case.
Most times, the lectures are bulked up with long grammars and excessive theories, which will end up making a potential engineer to keep cramming various theories just to be able to pass an exam. This ugly trend has crept into the educational system in the country and has ended up becoming a norm in the academic setting in the country.
Also no thanks to the caliber of lecturers that are being employed to lecture such delicate courses. It shouldn’t also come as a surprise when you end up meeting lecturers in most universities who can’t design even the smallest of machines but lecturing students on various complicated courses.
This ugly trend has resulted to increased number of graduates who can recite various engineering theories but can’t manufacture or repair a single equipment or machine that is connected to such theory; thereby creating graduates who employers feel can’t make a difference in the real world of engineering.
Also even the student that was taught the practical aspect in the polytechnics, cannot even differentiate the difference between what they where taught and what is currently existing in the labour market after graduation because it is totally different.
2. NOT ENOUGH ROOM FOR INTERNSHIP:
It is widely suggested that since Nigerian students don’t get the necessary exposure to the practical aspect of their various courses while in the university, It is expected that they should be given enough time in between studies to go on repeated internship programs to help give them the necessary exposure needed, but the reverse has been the case.
Engineering student in most universities and polytechnic are given a maximum period that varies between 6 to 12 months for just their internship program, and it has been found out that the length duration for this program is not really enough for an Engineering student in Nigeria to gain the necessary practical exposure for his course of study.
Students on such internships spends most of their time during this period searching for placements in various firms, therefore leaving less time for learning before their stay duration expires. This in turn has left most students handicapped when it comes to repair, manufacture and the working principle of various Engineering machines.
3. NO GRADUATE JOBS:
Just when it seems that after graduation that you will be opportune to learn on the job, you get to realize that most companies don’t love recruiting graduates engineers.
Sometimes many companies do advertise graduate jobs, but the ratio of slots required to the number of graduates seeking for the job is highly ridiculous. And most times during recruitment, Engineering graduates are judged not on their abilities to create designs and implement their creativity but in their abilities to read and write essays, making the talented ones among them with low knowledge of essay writing and current affairs screened out in the process.
This ridiculous method of recruitment has made most talented engineering graduates to seek for jobs in other sectors like the banking/finance sector, marketing, and other fields that isn’t really connect to the prestigious world of engineering
4. LACK OF SUITABLE JOBS:
I have seen engineering graduates of Electrical/Electronics being employed as forklift drivers in various firms and this has got me wondering how their expertise could be utilized given the fact that their job description is totally out of what they are trained for.
This scenario is practically being played out in various firms and companies where engineering graduates are recruited. I have also seen engineering graduates being employed in the banking sector as accountants and they are made to learn on the job.
This has made me ask; “why they can’t be employed as Engineers in engineering firms and make them to also learn on the job”. Many companies argue that lack of resources for the training of such engineering graduates make them want to employ people who are already skilled on the job and people with vast experience. This should be a reason enough to discourage prospective individuals in a country.
5. NO MOTIVATION FOR RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT:
In advanced countries, Engineers are given special grants and an enabling environment to research about their profession and bring out lasting solutions to problems of technology in the country. But it is no longer news that Nigeria isn’t interested in such a program.
The government has left everything to chance and even those who try to come with exciting ideas that could solve a specific problem technologically wouldn’t receive enough motivation or special grants to carry on the project. This therefore kills the creativity of Engineers in the Nigeria.
I know lots of young Engineers out there; who have succeeded in developing special prototypes of machines and only need the required funds to get it to reality, but the funds isn’t coming. The inability of the government to invest in the engineering talents in the country kills a whole lot of ideas, day by day.
Summary
Being an Engineer in Nigeria comes with lots of benefits and also lots of challenges. Most of these challenges are obtainable when you don’t prepare the bedrock and foundation upon which you intend to build your career. Proper preparations will enable you become a great Engineering student in whatever career path you have chosen to follow.