Evaluating the effectiveness of Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) programme to ensure quality of technical, vocational education and training in technical colleges in Lagos State

This study evaluated the effectiveness of SIWES Programme in Lagos State to ensure quality of technical, vocational education and training. Three research questions and two hypotheses guided the study in which survey research design was used. The entire population of 130, comprising 120 teachers of technical vocational education and training in Lagos State and also 10 industrial supervisors from Reckit and Benkiser in Ogun State was used for the study. A 35-item questionnaire was used for data collection. The instrument was validated by three experts. Cronbach Alpha reliability method was used to determine the internal consistency of the instrument at a coefficient of 0.86. A total of 130 copies of the questionnaire were administered but only 127 copies were retrieved and analysed using mean, standard deviation and t-test. The study found out that there exist 10 challenges of Student Industrial Work Experience Scheme in developing the needed skill in the industry, 15 strategies that can be adopted in evaluating the effectiveness of SIWES in Nigeria and 10 remedies to the challenges faced by TVET student on their industrial attachment programme were identified. The paper recommended that government should grant tax relief and other incentives to private sector organizations who implement the SIWES programme satisfactorily, and that the administrators of TVET in technical colleges in Lagos State should organize orientation to industrial supervisors to fully understand the role they need to play in the student attachment programme. The paper concluded by saying that most of the students admitted to TVET programme found themselves in a helpless situation of securing a place of industrial attachment and also employment in the industry, hence the need for the evaluation of the SIWES programme.   Key words: Technical and vocational education and training (TVET), Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES), evaluation, graduates, and practical skills.