Many holders of Higher National Diploma, HND, certificates went to the ongoing Orientation Camps of the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, to register for their one-year national service only to be turned back due lack of Industrial Training, IT, certificates.
Tertiary education in Nigeria as anywhere in the world consists of academic training for degree or diploma certifications. While Industrial Training is not compulsory for some degree programmes, those of the Higher National Diploma are indispensable. Indeed, promotion from National Diploma to Higher National Diploma is predicated on students completing the IT with the required certificate.
It is this certificate that is tendered at the NYSC Orientation Camp for registration and participation in the scheme. It beats the imagination that some institutions award HND certificates and graduate their students without the IT certificate. What could possibly be the explanation for this anomaly?
Industrial training is essential for Diploma education because unlike majority of university courses which are theory-based, Diploma education is practical-centred. They are awarded by monotechnics, polytechnics and colleges of technology.
The IT component is aimed at exposing students to the real-world work situations which, in most cases, are staggeringly different from classroom scenarios. The IT puts the student at the centre of industrial action, with the labour force, machines and other industrial equipment at play. Many students return from their IT journeys with the discovery that classroom work is totally out of tune with what obtains in the real world.
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We stand with the NYSC in its decision to reject HND holders who have no IT certificates. However, they should not stop there. They should compile the list of institutions that graduated their HND students without verified IT exposures because they churn out poorly-educated and unemployable products.
We also understand the problems that some of the students go through in their search for places where they can do their IT. With the poor situation of the economy, many industries and businesses are forced to close shop. Even massive multinational manufacturing companies that have been in Nigeria for decades are being forced to close shop due to unfavourable economic climate, let alone struggling start-ups.
The State and Federal ministries of education should synergise with the authorities of the various HND-awarding institutions to facilitate students participation in their IT programmes.
The digital revolution has opened up exciting new horizons to enable students acquire work experiences through their IT programmes. Any registered and certified business that is capable of exposing the students to practical experience can be enlisted. Institutions must, as much as possible, assist their students to gain this experience and certification.
We urge the rejected NYSC call-ups to comply with this requirement to enable them serve.
