Students ’ Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) and the Incidence of Occupational Misfit in Nigeria By

The incidence of occupational misfit among Nigerian graduates have taken a centre stage in the debate on the relevance and quality of higher education to national development. It is on this basis that studies tend to assess the trends in work-base study programmes with reference to skill acquisition and utilization. This study therefore examined the SIWES scheme and the incidence of occupational misfit in Nigeria. The ex-post facto research design was used for the study. The population was estimated at 2,242 comprised of students from four polytechnics (849), four monotechnics (550) and (542) Industrial Training Officials of SIWES in Science, Technology and Agriculture related courses selected through the purposive and stratify random sampling techniques. Data were collected using an expert validated questionnaire tagged: “Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme Skills Development and Utilization (SIWESSDUS) r = 0.89 complemented with relevant primary data from the Industrial Training Fund Office. Three hypotheses were tested, using Chi square (X2), and multiple regression analysis at 0.05 alpha. Findings indicated that 61.9 % (male) and 38.1 % (female) participated in the study with a mean age of 32.5 years. SIWES has contributed to skill acquisition significant (78%) and skills utilization in industrial development (68%). SIWES significantly influenced the certification and accreditation of courses in the Monotechnic and Polytechnic Institutions (x2 = 301. 317; df = 12, P< 0.05); and SIWES had also enhanced the extent of funding skills-acquisition programmes by the Federal Government (x2 = 1287.692, df = 12 P<0.05). Meanwhile, SIWES also improved positively the level of skills utilization by employers of labour (x2 = 324, 429; df = 15, P< 0.05). It is recommended that government should devote sufficient financial resources to all levels and aspects of education to sustain skill acquisition programme such as in SIWES