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CHEMICAL ENGINEERING IN STUDENTS’ INDUSTRIAL WORK-EXPERIENCE SCHEME (SIWES)

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING IN STUDENTS’ INDUSTRIAL WORK-EXPERIENCE SCHEME (SIWES)

As earlier stated, SIWES is a generic programme with its impact and effectiveness cutting across all SIWES-approved disciplines including Chemical Engineering. However, two points need to be made with respect to SIWES in Chemical Engineering.

Firstly, Chemical Engineering has the peculiar problem of scarcity of quality places of industrial attachment. Although nearly all materials in modern civilization passes through one form of chemical processing or the other and, therefore, placement should normally not be a problem for chemical engineering students, the reality is that finding quality places of attachment for this category of students is becoming very daunting. This is, to a large extent, attributable to the decline in industrial activity in the economy and the large numbers of chemical engineering students in tertiary
institutions competing for the limited available places. The situation is even worse for Petroleum and Gas Engineering students where the actors in the sector are finite and the onset of the crisis in the Niger Delta region coupled with the state of the refineries have conspired to reduce production activities, leading to scarcity of places of industrial attachment.

With improvements in the level of industrial activity in the economy and increased capacity utilization in the oil and gas sector, the problems of finding quality places of attachment for students of chemical engineering and/or petroleum and gas engineering might dissipate. The enactment of the Oil Industry Act with is provisions for local content and participation by Nigerian entrepreneurs might ameliorate the present scarcity of quality places for this category of students.
However, the departments of chemical engineering can contribute to finding quality places of attachment for their students by taking advantage of a functional network of chemical engineering Alumni.

The second point that needs to made is that SIWES is not and cannot be a substitute for structured professional training in Chemical Engineering as well as in other engineering fields. At best, SIWES is a pre-qualification introduction into the chemical engineering profession that enables the student to appreciate how the profession is practiced in real life.

Apart from passing appropriate examinations in the principles that under chemical engineering, the professional chemical engineer must also have received practical training in the skills and duties of an engineer and must also have obtained sufficient experience in carrying out the duties of a professional post (The Institution of Chemical Engineers, 1974). For the professional development of chemical engineering graduates from Nigerian tertiary institutions, a system of practical training and garnering of experience similar to that outlined by the Institution of Chemical Engineers, United Kingdom needs to be adopted. Such training and experience should cover Process Plant Fabrication and Materials of Construction, Process and Plant Development, Process and Plant Design, Process Plant Operation, Quality Assessment of Process Materials, and General Company/Management Training. The trainee Chemical Engineer would follow a route, lasting a minimum of about two years, in industry while the entire experience should be documented in log books and reports.

A commendable approach or system of professional training of engineers in Nigeria is the compulsory Supervised Industrial Training Scheme in Engineering (SITSIE) established by the erstwhile Council of Registered Engineers in Nigeria for fresh or young graduates (COREN, 1991). However, SITSIE experiences similar problems of inadequate human and technical infrastructure, scarcity of quality placement opportunities, logistics and financial limitations, amongst others in a similar way as SIWES. If properly implemented, SITSIE should be able to ensure appropriate training of graduate engineers before they attain the professional status. However, the operation and implementation of SITSIE need to be strengthened to achieve this purpose.

In a similar vein, there is a need for further development of the professional engineer after attaining professional status in view of the continuing advancements in science and engineering and the rapid rate of introduction of new technologies. The establishment of an Engineering Staff College of Nigeria (ESCON) is therefore highly recommended to cater for the continuing development of the professional engineer (Mafe, 2002). This should be structured formally as is the case in India rather than the diffused system of continuing education and training in engineering prevalent in Britain. While there are formal institutions for continuing education and training (ASCON, CMD etc) for management and for the military (Staff College, Jaji and War College, Abuja), there is none specifically for engineering, the creators of wealth and innovations.


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