This article is a guide for successful participation in SIWES - Student Industrial Work Experience Scheme.

Who is this for?

We are well aware that SIWES- Student Industrial Work Experience Scheme is conducted at  several levels in some institutions – universities and polytechnics. Some universities undertake siwes for 200, 300 and 400 Levels. However, the ones taken most serious is the 6 month/1 Year(Polytechnic) SIWES program mostly by 400 Level students. This guide is prepared for them, other levels can benefit immensely from it nonetheless.
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Sections on this article
The following will be covered in this article.

- Benefits/Aims/Advantages of undertaking a good SIWES program.
- How to build your GP using your SIWES Report and Log Book – Grading System
- The conditions in getting SIWES placement Abroad
- SIWES Documents: Relevance, meaning and How to use them
- Reporting at ITF Area Office

RATIONALE
All attempts, research have been made by mbscholars and its crew towards finding and culminating resources for the purpose of eliminating the shortcomings associated with SIWES orientation programmes organized in schools thereby enhancing the capacity of the students to optimally benefit from SIWES participation. This article will reach its maximum potential if read by the students well before embarking on the SIWES scheme and used as a reference during and after the process. With all these said, lets step on the gas.

Benefits of obtaining a good SIWES Placement.

A lot of students do not get to appropriately benefit from SIWES programs probably because they do not even know why they are doing so. To many, it is just a requirement and a sharp way of making a 5.0 or 4.0 depending on your GP scale, to some they just need to do it, so that they can fill their log books etc. Your understanding of the aim and the benefits will not only help you in optimizing the opportunitity, it will also speak out in your defense and if your defense rechoes the vision of SIWES, then you  have merited the score.

The benefits of SIWES to you as a student includes:

- It builds in you work related skills and key competencies that are required to perform jobs or functions.
- It provides opportunity for students to blend theoretical knowledge acquired in the classroom with practical hands-on application of knowledge required in the industry
- Exposes the student to the work environment in which they will eventually work thus enabling them to see how their future professions are organized in practice
- Makes students appreciate work methods and gain experience in handling equipments and machinery which may / may not be available in their institution
- Prepares students to contribute to the productivity of their employers and national development immediately after graduation
- Provides an enabling environment where a student can develop and enhance several personal and inter-personal skills like critical thinking, creativity, presentation skills etc
- Prepares student for employment and smoothens the transition from school to industry work.
- Enhances students contacts with potential employers while on training
- Provides a facility to bridge the gap between academic theory and industrial practices and their relevant Production skills
- Careful examination of the benefits above, you will observe that it can be customized to make a powerful career objective or personal statement when building your resume/CV for SIWES/Industrial training/Internship placement

 CONDITIONS/REQUIREMENTS IN GETTING A SIWES PLACEMENT ABROAD
There are a lot of internship / siwes placement offers abroad and you will likely be tempted to undergo your industrial training there. However, before you leap into it, take a look at these conditions that should be met.

Such a place of industrial attachment must correlate to your discipline
You should have a letter of offer of a place of industrial attachment addressed to you by the company
A letter addressed to the coordinating unit confirming the offer of a place to the student by the company locatred abroad
A detailed training program to be followed by the student may be considered acceptable since the student will not be visited by any ITF officials or SIWES coordinator

SIWES DOCUMENTS: HOW TO USE THEM

LETTER TO THE EMPLOYER (Appendix C): This document introduces the student as a bona fide student of the institution and also requests some obligations and roles on the part of the employer in ensuring that the student benefits from the work experience.

PLACEMENT LETTER (Appendix C): Addressed to the student. Contains the expected roles and obligations of the student while on training.

ASSUMPTION OF DUTY FORM(Appendix C): This is to be completed by the student and the employer on reporting in industry and returned to the coordinating unit within a week of commencenment of training. The form seeks information on the actual location of the student as well as contact numbers to enable visiting personnel from the institution contact and supervise the student in the workplace. The completion and return of the assumption of duty form is important in compiling the supervision roster of visiting staffs.

SPE-1 FORM(Appendix B) This is to be completed by the student and the employer and returned to the nearest ITF AREA OFFICE within a week of reporting in the industry. The submission of the form confirms to the ITF that the student has commenced training and enables the FUND to make arrangements for the payment of allowances. Failure to comply in due time can result in delays in payment of allowances.SCAF introduced by ITF ascertains dates of commencement of training by the student.

ITF FORM 8(Appendix B). This is to be used for the end of training evaluation.It has a column for the affixation of your passport photograph and it is to be completed by the student and the employer at the end of the work experience and returned under a confidential seal to the institutions coordinating unit by the employer.

SUPERVISORS LOG BOOK: Here the supervisors use this for monitoring of students on SIWES.
SIWES Supervision Assessment Form(Appendix B): Completed by the student and the employer and forwarded to the nearest ITF Area Office at the end of the training

The Log book(Appendix C): Of course you know what this is for. Recoding of the day to day activities of the student.

List of ITF Area Offices(Appendix B)


REPORTING TO ITF AREA OFFICE
Remember, during the first week of reporting in industry, you are required to complete and process your assumption of duty form and SPE-1 Form or SCAF form and forward them to the coordinating unit of your institution and the nearest ITF Area office respectively.

THE LOG BOOK: HOW TO KEEP AND FILL
The log book is the major document that shows the extent and scope of work performed and the quality of the experience that you have received.  It is tantamount that you keep your log book current by ensuring that you record the day to day activities. Do not keep them till a later date, there is a tendency to forget and lose vital points

The following is required of you in your log book:

Fill the initial pages correctly: Personal information, Institution, employer etc
Week No and Month No should be indicated serially from the first week/month to the last
Make entries of daily learning activities in the spaces provided and avoid using same / symbols to indicate that you performed same activities as the previous day. Instead record them individually as no tow jobs carried out on different days are the same no matter how similar they may seem.
Make entries using past terms since you are reporting
Provide sketches, diagrams and graphs to illustrate your understanding of the processes, equipments and machinery you came across during your learning activities. If the spaces procided is not adequate enough, you can attach additional sheets. Avoid cutting and pasting photocopies of diagrams, flowchars from manuals as much as possible. Drawing them yourself enhances your understanding of the concepts deployed.
Your monthly write up should be a logical summary of the work experience undertaken  during this period.

The last 5 pages of your log book are reserved for comments and observations from the institution based supervisors and ITF officials who will be paying visits to you to monitor your progress during training. NOTE THAT SUPERVISORY CHECKS ARE UNANNOUNCED THUS MAKE SURE YOUR LOG BOOK IS AVAILABLE.

BUILDING YOUR GPA USING SIWES - GRADING SYSTEM...
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