By: HighCelebritySquard
The Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria has said it is poised to bring a paradigm shift to the engineering profession by setting new standards that will ensure that all university students acquire skills that will make them more innovative to operate under the 21st-century economy.
The Registrar, COREN, Dr Joseph Odigure, who said the present focus was on outcome-based engineering in the universities, stressed the need to strengthen the accreditation system for engineering in universities to produce graduates that would meet local and international demands.
He spoke in Ado Ekiti on Tuesday during a four-day regional train-the-trainers workshop for the implementation of OBE in engineering programmes in Nigerian universities, an approach which he said “focuses on specific attributes in terms of knowledge, skill and attitudes that must be exhibited by students”.
He said the workshop, attended by eight engineering undergraduates each from the universities in Ekiti, Osun, and Ondo states, was meant to expose the students to the imperative of fully practicalising the profession, rather than following the long-standing theory trends.
Odigure said, “By implementing OBE, students are expected to be able to do more challenging tasks rather than memorize what was taught. This implies that tertiary education could provide professional knowledge/skills and all-round attributes to their graduates through OBE approach.
“In addition, OBE helps to empower a workforce that can compete in a global economy of the 21st century as it equips a learner to transfer academic success to life in a complex, challenging and high-technology future.
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“We observed that many of our engineering graduates don’t secure jobs easily, so with OBE, they can get the required skills, knowledge and attitudes to operate independently. We want to see a system whereby lecturers would be able to teach students to get an expected output, not just teaching based on the curriculum alone.
“We want to engage local artisans and craftsmen; they too have skills so that they can partner with the academics for engineering development. They have to join the engineering revolution.
“Let us fine-tune the delivery in engineering. Let us have engineering that is friendlier and that can impact skills to face the challenges of the 21st century for global development.
