HOPES of moving Nigeria s tertiary institutions to the fast lane in technological innovations and training of skilled manpower has been rekindled.

The Rector of Yaba College of Technology, Mr. Olubunmi Owoso disclosed to Vanguard that a strategic plan aimed at training students who are not only knowledgeable and skilled but also have innovative ideas, has been drawn up and is already being implemented by his administration.

The strategic plan, designed to be proactive, sets out core developmental objectives and programmes of activities to be pursued by the institution in the next few years, was inspired by a myriad of socio-economic problems confronting the country, among which are high unemployment rate, low manufacturing output, poor infrastructure, lack of adequate technical manpower and poor skills of graduates of Nigeria s higher educational institutions. Yabatech intends to tackle these through its plan. Owoso explained that the plan consists the immediate range (1-12 months), medium range (1-3 years), and long term range (3-5 years), stressing that some of the plans are already being implemented. The plan emphasizes entrepreneurial education with a view to stemming the high unemployment rate among graduates in the country.

In Owoso s words: "it is not enough to have the knowledge and the skills, a graduate must have orientation towards entrepreneurial activities either in the setting up of small-scale or medium-scale enterprises, thereby becoming job creator rather than job seeker. Giving Nigeria a technological break-through is the centre-piece of the strategic plan. How then will the institution achieve this elusive feat on which many Nigerians are already giving up hope?

"One of the cardinal objectives in our mission statement is the development of academic and professional training programmes in the college. To achieve this, we would be aiming at providing equipment and facilities in our laboratories and workshops. We would also be aiming at improving the competence of our academic staff in the area of applied research. These will be a major impetus towards our level of performance and technological efforts."

Collaborating with the world of industry and commerce is another objective the institution hopes to achieve. The impact will be better felt when the institution has close relations and collaboration with industries, according to the rector. It is through this collaboration that some of the output of the college s technological efforts will be translated into industrial practice and production and will therefore promote the level of productivity in the manufacturing sector.

Specifically, the college looks forward to a close collaboration with the Nigerian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the National Association of Small and Medium Enterprises and the Nigerian Association of Small-Scale Industrialists. The plan is expected to involve every member of the polytechnic community, and drives everybody to move round a collectively determined realizable target which is in consonance with the socio-economic goals of the nation.

The college s management first proposed to the governing council on the needs for the strategic plan. In June this year, council unanimously voted for it. Then management set up a planning committee, comprising senior academic and non-academic staff to form the plan s core group, working with an appointed consultant. Thereafter, a workshop for all principal officers and management staff of the institution was organised in August where they were informed about the need for the strategic plan, what it involves and they were also given room for contribution. Efforts were also made by the college s management to analyse the institution s activities, academic programmes, the administrative infrastructure, the resources of the college, its problems and constraints before preparing comprehensive reports.

The next phase of the exercise was another workshop for heads of departments, heads of divisions both in academic and administrative units. At the workshop, they were briefed about the aims and objectives of the plan and they also did their own appraisal about the present status of the college, its areas of strength, its problems, the opportunities that can be explored in the immediate and external environment. A report also came out from this workshop.

At the end of these two workshops, these core groups of professionals in the college, academic and administrative staff, sat down with the educational consultant and did an analysis of the reports and it was on the basis of this that the action plan emerged. The emergence of the action plan in the college is itself a product of the National Summit on Higher Education which the Federal Minister of Education, Prof. Babalola Borishade convened in March this year. The national summit was necessitated by the overwhelming problems of poor infrastructure, poor funding, lack of commitment of staff to their jobs, cultism and general indiscipline among students which have reached an alarming level in higher institutions. At the summit, Borishade had instructed all higher institutions to embark on a strategic plan with a view to bringing them out of the woods. Interestingly, the idea of a strategic plan was not strange to Yaba College of Technology, according to Owoso.

His words: "The instruction by the Honourable Minister of Education at the March summit coincided with one of the cardinal objectives that we had at the inception of my administration at Yaba College of Technology. This objective is that at the turn of this century it is now necessary for us as the foremost polytechnic to sit down and determine a plan of action that we will follow to enable us play our proper role as the leading polytechnic in Nigeria."

But how will the college get the necessary wherewithal to implement this plan, given the phenomenon of poor funding which has been a a problem to the country s higher educational institutions? Owoso hopes to receive financial support from the Federal Ministry of Education. He says: "The opening ceremony was attended by a representative of the Directorate of Technology and Science Education in the Ministry of Education. We will send a copy of the strategic plan to the Honourable Minister of Education as soon as we have the final copy. We hope that this will encourage the ministry, to see that we have set our target and they will also see the programmes of activities lined up. We would be able to convince them of our specific areas of need and hopefully we should receive financial support from them?

Yaba College of Technology is, according to Owoso, the first institution after the National Summit on Higher Education which took place in March this year, to undertake the strategic plan. Many are therefore looking towards the successful implementation of this lofty plan of action from which other education institutions will take a cue.