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THE ADVENT OF INDUSTRIAL TRAINING

THE ADVENT OF INDUSTRIAL TRAINING

The power-driven machines, steam engines and the new system of manufacturing associated with the industrial revolution demanded a cadre of workers who were freed from the limitations of their immediate craft capabilities and possessed knowledge of the new technologies prevalent then in the workplace. This demand led to the concept of “the application of higher learning to practical and technical affairs” (Eurich, 1985).

The concept flourished with the establishment of technical and engineering courses first at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, United States in 1824 and followed by Columbia University in 1830, which introduced a new scientific curriculum that required neither Latin nor Greek. By the close of the 19th Century, science, engineering and technical education had been firmly established in
several universities and other institutions of higher learning in both the United States and Europe.
The graduates of these institutions were equipped, through systematic instruction (i.e. education), with a body of knowledge in science and engineering which was conceptual and generic. They possessed general ideas or notions underlying the workings of various engineering systems but lacked a thorough grounding in the application of knowledge to the execution of specific jobs.
It became clear that engineering students needed to supplement their education with practical experience and training in industry for them to be effective and productive workers in the execution of specific jobs after graduation. 


An innovation in engineering education which took place during the first decade of the 20th Century addressed the need of engineering students for job-related practical hands-on experience when Herman Schneider, Dean of the College of Engineering, University of Cincinnati introduced Cooperative Education (Eurich, 1985). The engineering student would go to school for a time, followed by working in a factory or industry for an equal period of time. Then the student would repeat the process: going to school for additional education and going back to the factory or industry for additional training and practical experience.

Although variations of cooperative education exist today, the innovation of Schneider in 1906 constitutes the foundation and the bedrock of all forms of industrial training of Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) students throughout the world. The Centennary or 100 years of this innovation was celebrated in 2006 through a World Conference on Cooperative Education at the University of Cincinnati, U. S. A.

In Nigeria industrial training also began with the dependence of industry on technical competencies for the operation and maintenance of its resources. Industrial training or work-experience had its origins in the practice at the first Nigerian Polytechnic, the Yaba Technical Institute (now Yaba College of Technology) which was founded in 1948. Students were sponsored by government establishments or private firms at the time. They returned to work with their employers during the long vacations. In this way, the students had some form of industrial training or work-experience integrated with their learning at the polytechnic (Uvah, 2004).

Subsequent expansion in higher education in Nigeria and discontinuation of the system of automatic sponsorship by employers, as a result of the increase in the number of institutions and enrolments, led to the demise of this format for industrial training.


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