Senator Omisore Seeks Adherence to Global Standards in Nigeria’s Engineering Education – THISDAYLIVE

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

A former National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Iyiola Omisore, has urged tertiary institutions in the country to elevate the quality of Nigeria’s engineering education to meet global standards and promote competition.

Omisore, an engineer and former deputy governor of Osun State, spoke on the theme: ‘Enhancing the Competitiveness of Nigerian Engineering Education Through Global Benchmarking’, during a presentation at the Fellows’ Forum of the 2023/2024 Academy Year of the Nigerian Academy of Engineering (NAE).
Omisore, who insisted that engineering education remains inseparable from the national interest of any nation, explained that when vibrant, engineering serves all other professionals and sectors in national development.
He stressed that engineering education ensures a solid foundation in science, research, product development, and equipment standardisation as well as project management.

According to him, engineering graduates are thus able to effortlessly integrate scientific and engineering principles into processes that contribute to advances in medical care, enhanced national security systems, ecologically sound resource management, and economic growth.

Omisore, who is also a fellow of NAE, stated that students who graduate with engineering degrees bring highly prized skills into a wide spectrum of sectors in a country’s workforce, with the diversity of engineering graduates’ backgrounds and viewpoints contributing to their ability to achieve the advances in innovation, productivity, and effectiveness.

Speaking on the importance of technical competencies, Omisore stated that contemporary development and innovation are technology-driven, with an increasing need for higher levels of engineering capacity to be deployed across all sectors.
However, he maintained that broad indicators of huge gaps in developing technical competencies are reported across the African continent, adding that in 2021, companies spent huge amounts of funds on training in basic skills that should have been learnt in school.

Africa’s poor performance in teaching Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), he said, eliminated many of the best and brightest school children from the ranks of future scientists and engineers.
“There are nearly 70 universities that offer engineering education with over 23 different programmes. This robust resource, if managed diligently, can produce at least 10,000 engineering graduates in the various fields of the noble profession.

“The question is, how skillful and competent are these student engineers? Are they passing through the global procedure right from the time of enrolment up to graduation? Do they observe the mandatory internship under a certified mentor and work in relevant engineering organisations during the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC)? These are the basic questions that require truthful answers,” he added.

According to him, the demand to promote engineering education as well as Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) is imperative if the country is to catch up and remain relevant in the global stage and harness her endowments and resources.

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