Teach Them How to Fish, Help Them to Survive: Empowering Future Doctors in Nigeria through Work-Study Programmes

Abstract

The work-study programme is a student-friendly and institution-friendly initiative that had been in legal existence for decades in the Western world. The benefits attached to work-study are enormous, some of which include acquisition of technical skills, research skills, administrative skills, leadership skills, increased financial income, and on-the-job experience, just to mention a few. However, in Nigerian tertiary schools, the work-study programme is yet to gain much foothold; many Nigerian students are not benefitting from school-created part-time job positions since many schools do not have such programmes in place. Although some Nigerian tertiary schools had embraced and as well created work-study programmes for students in this recent decade; however, the programme is still premature in such schools because not all of students are equally benefitting from that programmes. The medical and dental students especially those in the clinical phase of academic programmes are yet to benefit from such programmes due to the unfavourable structure of academic programmes and other factors. Hence, this article is to emphasise on the need for the creation of doable work-study opportunities for medical and students in Nigeria.