The Student Industrial Work Experience Scheme

1:1 Background
Training is a key factor in enhancing the efficiency and expertise of the workforce. The Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) program prepares students for Labour Markets, and it has become an innovative phenomenon in human resource development and training in Nigeria.

The Library Profession, like other professions is dynamic. This dynamism is in response to Information and Communication Technology (ICT). With the introduction of ICTs into the field of Library and Information Science (LIS), it has become imperative that LIS practitioners possess the skill needed to function effectively in an ICT environment.

No society can achieve meaningful progress without encouraging its youth to acquire necessary practical skills. Such skills enable them to harness available resources to meet the needs of society. It is against this BACKGROUND that SIWES, otherwise referred to as Industrial Training (IT), was introduced in Nigerian tertiary institutions.

SIWES is a skill development programme designed to prepare students of Universities, Polytechnics/ Monotechnics, and College of Educations for transition from the college environment to work. Akerejola (2008), Oyedele (1990) state that work experience is an educational program in which students participate in work activities while attending school. This work experience program gives students the opportunity to be part of an actual work situation outside the classroom.

SIWES is a cooperative industrial internship program that involves institutions of higher learning, Industries, the federal government of Nigeria, Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Nigerian University Commission (NUC) and NBTE/NCCE in Nigeria. Student that participate in this work experience program include those studying Library Science, Engineering, Vocational, Technological, and related courses in institutions of higher learning, SIWES forms part of the approved minimum academic standards in the institutions. It’s a core academic requirement carrying three(3) credit Units, this requirement must be met by all students in Library and Information Science before graduation.

Eze (1998) point out that government has recognized the important of SIWES through the establishment of Industrial Training Fund (ITF), and it was established in 1971 and charged with human resources development and Training, following the establishment of ITF, SIWES commenced in 1974 with the aim of making education more relevant to bridge the yawning gap between the theory and practices of engineering, technology, and science-related discipline in tertiary institutions in Nigeria.

1.2 Objectives
The specific objectives of SIWES were summarized by the Federal government in its Gazette of April, 1978 as follows; -To provide avenue for students in institution of higher learning to acquire industrial skills and experience in their course of study. -To provide students with an opportunity to apply their knowledge in real work and practice, thereby bridging the gap between theory and practice. -To make the transition from school to the world of work easier and to enhance students contact for later job placement. -To prepare students for the work situation they are to meet after graduation. -To expose students to work methods and techniques in handling equipment and machinery that may not be available in their institution. -To enlist and strengthen employer involvement in the entire educational process of preparing university graduate for employment in industry.

It is obvious that the reason that led to the inception of the program. Some decades ago are today even more relevant due to rapid technological development, especially as it concern ICT in LIS. The industrial economy brought about the information explosion and subsequently increases the need for information. The explosion gave birth to the ‘’Information Society’’ Information Society brought many changes and challenges to the information world. Ershova and Hohlov, (2000) note that the change is affecting every sphere of Library and information science (LIS). The Library as a service – oriented institution, tries to incorporate these new developments, the Traditional role of LIS practitioners is to acquire, organize and make information accessible. L.O Aina (2004) traces the development of information channels from oral culture to clay tablets, papyrus, cuneiform, parchment and print through the micrography to the new information technology. Every technological development brings new techniques of acquiring and handling information. Present- day Librarians are expected to be skilled in using computer, networks and the internet to fulfill their professional obligations.

CHAPTER TWO
DESCRIPTION OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF ATTACHMENT
2:1 Location and Brief History of Attachment
Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies (MINILS) Federal Ministry of Labour and productivity was situated at kilometer (Km) 7, Ajase-Ipo Road, Olunlade Village, Ilorin Kwara State, Nigeria. P.M.B 1524.

Brief History
The idea of establishing a National Labour Institute (NIL’S) dates back to the Third National Development plan 1975 to 1980 when the Federal Government of Nigeria took over the Patrick Lumumba Labour Institute and the Trade union Institute for Economies and Social development established by the banned of Nigeria Trade Union Congress (NTUC) and the United Labour of Nigeria (ULCN) respectively. The antecedents and rationale behind the establishment of the National Institute for Labour studies were therefore well enunciated in the 1975 National Labour Policy and plan.

The foundation stone of the Institute was laid in Ilorin during the second Republic by the then Civilian president Shehu Shagari on 4th May, 1983. Today the Institute has the status of a parastatal under the Federal Ministry of Employment, Labour and productivity and has its legal backing vide Labour Act Cap 261 of the Laws of the Federation of Nigeria , 1990 (formally known as Decree No 5 of 1986).The Institution was renamed Michael Imoudu Institute for Labour studies (MIILS) on 1st May 1992 in honour of Nigeria’s foremost Labour Leader and stout staunch defender of workers’ rights, Comrade (chief) Pa Michael Aitokhaimen Omiunu Imoudu. The inclusion of National was effected recently in order o reflect its status, thus, it is now know as the Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies Ilorin,(MINILS) 2:2 Objective of Establishment

As the only tripartite Institute of its kind in the whole of West African sub- region , the institute has adopted this mission “to provide effective training ; consulting and research services in labour and related subjects” so as to enhance industrial harmony in Nigeria and beyond for rapid and sustainable socio- economic development. Consequent upon the above stated mission, the objective of MINILS is as follows; -To provide workers education generally so as to enhance the role of trade unions in the social and economic development of the country and equip trade union officers and managers with skills normally required collective bargaining and joint consultation in fostering the growth of better labour and management ; -Provide opportunity for policy makers in the field of labour and social policy in industry, in the trade union and in government to acquire by personal experience a full understanding of the issues which confront them in their day -to –day work ;

-To provide and arrange comparative study and investigations of the principles and techniques of trade unionism and thereby assist the government in evolving a virile and well organized trade union movement capable of given full and responsible expression to the needs of workers and the aspirations of the country; -To undertake, organize and facilitates study courses, conferences lectures, seminars and the like with a view to improving the standard of trade union administration and infusing a sense of direction and accountability; -To promote research through collaboration with universities and Institutes concerned with industrial relations and Labour matters; -To award grants , scholarship or travel fellowship for research in labour study and allied subject; -To undertake and provide for publication of journals, research papers and book in furtherance of the afores aid objectives. In relations to the parent Ministry’s functions therefore, the institute’s main objectives could be seen as complimentary in the area of promoting peace and harmony through training, research and consultancy services. The institute serves both the public and private sectors of the Nigerian economy.

2:4 Organization Structure
To actualize its objective, the institute is organized into Five main departments namely:-
-Planning Research and Curriculum Development Department
– Trade Union Education Department
-Labour- Management Relations Development
– Administration and Registrar Office
-Finance and Account Department
Other specialized units are:-
-Library Division
-Audit Unit and
-Public relations Units.

Trade Union Educational Department
The trade union education department has two divisions namely: The union organization and Administrative division and the Academic program division -Union organization and Administration division: The division organized courses and in-plant programmes -Academic division: They took significant steps in reposition the institution for the realization of her long- term goal of awarding Diplomas and certificates to trade union leaders through low residence high contact via internet. Labour –Management Relations Development

The LMR department through its various activities organized and facilitated workshops, seminars and in- plant courses. It offered advisory and intervention services to individual works, employer’s association and trade unions. It assists government in evolving a virile and well organized trade union capable of given full expression to the need of workers and aspiration of the country.

The department has two divisions:
-Industrial relations and personnel management: Its jurisdiction covers aspects of development issues, employee’s roles, social protection policies and employees’ retirement. -Gender education: This handles matter s concerning: issues in population and HIV/AIDS in the workplace , Gender discrimination in and out of employment ; effect of gender discrimination on women poverty level ; Equal property rights; sexual harassment; and woman protection. Administrative and Registrar’s Office

In line with the statutory role of administrative, the department provides secretariat and administrative support services for the institute as well as handles general personnel matters. Planning, Research and Curriculum Development (PRCD)

This department, as its name implies, is responsible for the research effort of the institute. It oversees the capacity building plans of the institute’s human resources, monitors and facilitates training and staff development program in area of fellowships. The department also handles collaborations and cooperation involving MINILS and other institutes. Financial and Account Department

This department handles financial matters and proper record keeping of various transactions in which the institution involved in. Other activities are as follows. -Budget Releases for Capital Development Program

-Purchasing / Rehabilitation Vehicles
-Funding of Training and Research Programme
-Management of Account
-Provision of require records for Auditing.
Other Specialized Departments
Public Relation Units
The unit is responsible for publicity gearing towards getting positive attention for the institutes and its activities, and utilization of media of communication to promote the activities of the institute. Library Division

The MINIL Library is a special cum academy library of which their role is to provide specialized information service for staff and members of the parent agency. Their job is to manage and deliver information service to people who comprise the Library’s special client group (Labour, industrial relations and Trade union) They usually provide proactive information or current awareness services by profiling their clients’ information needs such as photocopying pages of Newspaper that relate to labour and minimum wages e.t.c. It comprises the following unit and section

-Office of the director of library
-Technical unit
-Circulation section
-Reference section
-Serial section
-Business centre
-Archive
Office of the Director of Library
The basic tasks in this office include the planning of acquisition which materials the library should acquire, defines the library’s mission and goals: shapes the role and responsibility of the Librarian. Give direction to the allocation, organization and management of physical and human resources; focuses attention on the library’s effectiveness and efficiency; establishes priorities for allocating limited resources.

Technical Section
The technical section is situated on the second floor, it works behind the scenes cataloging and processing new materials. The main responsibility of this section is to classify and catalogue the reading material in the library. Library of congress classification scheme(LCCS) and its subject headings were used for the processing of materials for systematical arrangement of information carriers on the shelves, and three card were prepared according to Anglo- American cataloguing Rule 2 (AACR2) one for another entries; another for subject and other for title entries. Circulation Section

This section is functioning on the ground floor of the library. This section of the library is very crucial to the image of the library. The assistant library office performing the tasks is the first contact with the patrons. The effectiveness and efficiency of this service goes a large extent to represents what the patron perceive of the whole library service. Circulation section performs the following function;

-Registration of user
-Charging and discharging of library materials
-Shelving
-Keeps statistics of daily transaction
-Checking’s’ of incoming and outgoing material thoroughly e.t.c Reference Section
The reference section is a separate section or entity that hold materials which are not meant for reading from cover to cover, rather, they are expected to be consulted as when necessary. Examples of holdings in this section are; encyclopedia, directories, Guinness book of records, Dictionary e.t.c. Their function is to answer the reader’s query and to keep record of the reference questions asked and answered. Those reference materials answers question like who is who, what is what, how and where e.t.c. to save the precious time of the users.

Serial Section
Serial section is functioning at the first floor of the library; it is the source of current and the latest published information which is very useful in research work. It acquires journals of subject relating to labour and industrial relation, Local newspapers, when a volume or file of news paper is completed, it is binded and sent to the archive for preservation. The library has maintained files of news papers from 1988 till date to onward of different national news papers such as Tribune, Punch, Guardian, Herald, business day and other magazine like TELL e.t.c. This section indexes and abstracts pages of news paper that relate to labour and industrial relation for current awareness service. Business Centre

This section of the library maintains a mini bookshop and also offers photocopying service to users. Requests for photocopies from staff, in connection with their functions, are accommodated by the Library, utilizing the available resources and/or outsourcing the photocopies. Photocopies for personal use must be paid by the staff at the cost of N3 per sheet or page. Researchers from outside are also allowed photocopying Library materials in the Library. Archive

This section is responsible for the collection and preservation of historical records for the use of historians and researchers. They were concern with old records. The section house binded news papers ranging from the date of inception of the institute till date and the artefacts of the Pa Michael Aitokhaimen Omiumu Imoudu. His artefacts like his shoes, staff, cloths, chair, feather e.t.c. while and after he was in service and pictures of out gone and outgoing president, Governor and minister of labour and productivities.

CHAPTER THREE
WORKS ACTUALLY CARRIED OUT
3:1 Technical Processing
Technical services are all the behind-the-scenes duties that keep a Library running. It makes a bridge between acquisitions of document to the circulation. The following activities took placed in the Technical Unit of the Library; Cataloguing and Classification: Cataloguing is the bibliographical description of information materials, while. Classification is an orderly arrangement of documents based on subject content into group or classes. Cataloguing and Classification of material is what I did for the firs six (6) weeks of the attachment (SIWES). Library of Congress Classification Scheme (LCCS) with its Subject Heading known as LCSH acronyms’ of Library of Congress Subject Heading and Cutter Table were used for assigning notation otherwise known as Call Numbers and in determining the subject of the document, while Cutter Table were used for cutting author’s surname. Three (3) cards were prepared for each document in the Library; Author, Subject and Title entries each for every processed document.

AUTHORS’ ENTRY CATALOGUED CARD

Filing of Catalogued Cards into the Catalogue Cabinet: In order to ensure uniformity and consistency in the filing catalogue entries because misfiling of entries may prevent users from accessing certain document in the collections of the Library. The arrangement is strictly in alphabetical order of authors’ surname, subject and title, though it appears simple but it’s practically tedious.

Placement of Call Number Label on the Spine of Document: Activities here is typing of call number on Microsoft Excel for printing and placing on the spine of the document. If the spine is wide enough for the call numbers to be seen, then the call number labels go on the spine of the document. Label were placed about ¼ inch to 1/2 inch up from the bottom. The white of the label can bend over the side of the spine, but the numbers have to be totally visible on the spine. If the spine is not wide enough for the call number, the label were then put on the lower left corner of the front of the book, we try not to hide information that may be on the cover. Registering of Received Materials in the Technical Unit into Shelf-List/Authority File:Apart from maintaining the catalogue of the library, another important function of the technical unit is to maintain a shelf-list. The list provides the records of all the holdings of the Library collection.

CHAPTER FOUR
CONTINUATION OF WORKED CARRIED OUT
4:1 Current Awareness Service (Serial Section)
In this section of the Library, I did current awareness service by asterisking and photocopying the pages of Newspapers that relate to LABOUR and MINIMUM WAGES. Copies of this pages were subsequently past on a board firmly held against the wall facing the main entrance of the Library. 4:2 Archive

An Archive is a collection of historical records. It contains primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an organization’s lifetime, and are kept to show the function of an organization. Archive consists of record that has been selected for permanent or long-term preservation on ground of their evidentiary value. In this section of the Library, I did arrangement of bounded News papers, and artifact of Pa MICHAEL IMOUDU (the foremost labour leader) and yearly reports of departments in the institute. This section maintain a register called FINGING AIDS, this is the retrieval tool in used, in which items in the archive are listed based on the personal or corporate source rather than the author of individual item. 4:3 Accessioning of Information Materials (Text and Journal) The process of accessioning involves assigning sequential numbers to documents as they are received into the Library. If the Library purchases multiple copies of a document, each copy will have different accession numbers. This is because every copy of the title will have it own unique number unlike ISBN, call number e.t.c which will be the same for all the multiple copies. The accession number, date, author’s name, title, supplier and price of each book are entered onto the ACCESSION REGISTER. This is what I did for five (5) working days of a week.

MINIL ACCESSION REGISTER
Accession NumberAuthorTitlePublisherPriceSuppliesDate ReceivedDate Withdrawn 08459Cappelli,p.Change at WorkOxford5/07/011
Experience Gain in the Program :Doing my SIWES program at MINIL Library indeed helped me a lot in organization of knowledge otherwise call catalogueing and classification, and my efficiency before and after training is incomparable. I got to know the important of good communication and interpersonal skills, and to develop these skills. I was exposed to librarian responsibilities and ethics. I was able to apply the Librarianship knowledge taught in lecture room in real industrial situation; Activities like cataloguing and classification, current awareness services, dissemination of information, filing of catalogued cards, indexing and abstracting and many more. By now, I think I can use the experience gained from the SIWES program in discussions in lecture room.

CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
5:1 Summary
The SIWES has provided a training ground where skill relating to how information can be processed, managed, preserved, retrieved and documented. This has gone a long way in equipping me in merging what has been learn in the lecture room to what was actually learnt on the field.

5:2 Conclusion and Problems
The Student Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) is a skill training program, designed to exposed and prepare students in institution of higher learning for the industrial work situation they are likely to meet after graduation. However, the situation described above represent the idea, but sometimes these ideas are achieved; as there are many problems militating against the success or its attainment. One major problem is that sometimes we students do not get placement for the three month of attachment. The situation became so hard that some student opt to work without pay, just to gain the experience. Invariably, the job may be done half-heartedly because of lack of financial support, even for such basic needs as the transportation to and from the work. In some cases, students are placed in job places and environments not related to their training. This is to satisfy the compulsory of the scheme. Invariably, the experiences acquired are irrelevant to their training needs and thus make defeat to the very fundamental objective of the scheme. 5:3 Recommendations

Cooperation between educators and practitioners is mandatory for proper supervision of SIWES participants. In addition the two must collaborate in curriculum development and revision to ensure a curriculum that satisfied job markets. Employers of labour are very important in the effective running of this scheme. They should try as much as possible to absorb a large number of SIWES students in their various establishments to acquire the practical training. Library school should revise their curriculum and introduce new courses to meet the need of employers in the public and private sector and some of other courses that will expose student to area of self-employment in this time of global unemployment and personnel downsizing. ICTs development have put more pressure on the SIWES program to help student develop new skills, student should be aware of what the society holds for them and adapt accordingly. Government and Employers of labour should encourage student on SIWES by paying sustenance allowance to them. Finally, lecturers from the university should pay a schedule visits to the industries to supervise the student work.