Students’ perception of the relevance of work experience scheme to real estate education in Nigeria

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the relevance of students industrial work experience scheme (SIWES) to real estate education in Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach – Primary data were collected with the aid of questionnaire served on 182 parts 3 and 4 students of Estate Management and Valuation, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Nigeria. The descriptive methods of mean and proportion method were used to determine the factors that are considered could contribute to real estate education in Nigeria. Findings – The result shows that SIWES is an integral part of real estate education and that it helps the students to acquire behavioural skills in addition to acquiring necessary experience required to set up private practice upon completion. Research limitations/implications – Obtaining the perception of students alone could make the findings one sided and bias. Further detailed research targeted at the employers of labour will provide a balanced view. Also, extending further studies to incorporating students of more universities will be more exciting. Originality/value – This paper is an effort at stimulating the interest of other researchers in conducting similar research to cover all institutions in Nigeria as well as obtaining the perception of the employers of labour in this respect.