Study on the Performance Evaluation of Students’ Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) in Federal Polytechnic Offa, Nigeria

Abstract

The Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) is skills and training preparatory programme meant to expose students of higher institutions of learning to practical experiences outside their institutions. Quality of the students’ exposure to industrial work experience and unemployment trend of graduates poses a serious threat to institution(s), societies and environment at large. The study examined the performance of Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme in Federal Polytechnic Offa, Nigeria. To achieve the aim of the study the objectives addressed includes; evaluate the level of performance of students of various participating departments in SIWES programme of Federal Polytechnic Offa, evaluate the average performance of students in SIWES programme across all the participating departments in Federal Polytechnic Offa, and evaluate the differences between the SIWES scores of various participating departments within the Federal Polytechnic Offa, Nigeria between 2014 – 2018. The study adopted a quantitative approach and data were elicited from five years (2014-2018) of National Diploma Students of the seventeen (17) participating departments. Inferential statistics of Two-Way Analysis of Variance and Simple descriptive statistical models were used in the analysis of data. The study revealed the downward trend in the performance of students. The p-values of the mean scores of students in each departments was 0.002 and the mean scores of students on yearly basis of 0.016 were all less than 0.05. The study rejects the null hypothesis and accepts the alternative hypothesis that there is significant difference between the departmental and yearly SIWES scores of students. The result of the Least Significant Difference (LSD) post hoc test revealed that the difference is between all the departments. The study recommended a data pool of relevant training organizations and the development of technology for proper placement of students to improve their skill acquisition and employability.