STUDENT'S INDUSTRIAL WORK EXPERIENCE SCHEME

BACKGROUND OF SIWES
The student industrial work experience scheme (SIWES) is a skill acquisition program designed to expose and prepare students of tertiary institution for the work situation they are likely to meet after graduation. It is a complementary program to the theoretical education and laboratory and workshop practices engaged  by students' in tertiary institutions which, by industrial standard are inadequate to serve the practical needs of the industries. The scheme also provide students' with the opportunity of familiarizing and exposing them to the needed experience in handling equipments and machineries, which may not be available in their institutions.
HISTORY OF SIWES
The student industrial work experience scheme(SIWES) was introduced by the industrial training fund (ITF) as means of merging theoretical and practical experience, the scheme was therefore designed to expose and prepare student to work under industrial scale which are likely to be encountered by the student after graduation.
ITF being a federal organization was established by decree 47 of 1973 and charged with the responsibility of promoting and encouraging the acquisition of skills in industries and commerce with view of generating a pool of indigenous trained man power sufficient to meet the need of the company.
The need for student industrial work experience scheme (SIWES) for students in higher institution of learning arose from the Federal Government directive that student should acquire practical knowledge of their respective discipline in the real industrial environment in order to prepare them to meet challenges of real work situations and also give them the opportunity of using sophisticated industrial equipments which are too expensive for universities to afford.

OBJECTIVES OF SIWES
To expose and prepare students' for industrial work situation they are likely to meet after graduation.
To expose students' to different individuals and how to interact with people and colleagues especially those on the same field (public relation).
To educate students on how to make a very good use of available resources for different applications.
To expose students' to industrial problems and ways of solving those problems.
To expose students' to methods and techniques in handling equipments and machines that may not be available in their institutions.