CIC, UNN collaborate to align engineering education to industry needs

The Clintonel Innovation Centre (CIC) and the University of Nigeria (UNN) engineering faculty have collaborated to bridge the industry-academic skills gap by aligning engineering education to the needs of the industry.

The Engineering Career Fair 2021brought together engineering experts from different industries to enlighten and train engineering students, lecturers, and graduates on the skills and expectations of the industry.

The UNN Career Fair was implemented as part of the Engineering for Industry (E4I) project supported by Engineering X, an international collaboration funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering UK and Lloyd’s Register Foundation.

“The UNN Engineering Career Fair is organized as part of a bigger national project called Engineering for Industry (E4I). E4I is supported by Engineering X, an international collaboration funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering UK and Lloyd’s Register Foundation,” said Tochukwu Clinton Chukwueke, founder, CIC during the fair.

“For UNN Career Fair 2021, we are partnering with the faculty of engineering UNN,” he said.

According to Clinton, CIC is a solar-powered STEM Centre, Nigeria’s first makerspace – Engineering Tech Hub and hardware startup incubator with the mandate of building engineering capacity, generating employment and reducing poverty in Nigeria.

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Apart from equipping the engineering students in attendance with industry-relevant –skills and insights, they had practical training workshops in modern and emerging technologies.

Also, the students were inspired to become entrepreneurs and job creators. The experts advocated for the review of the engineering education policy and curriculum to

Chigbo A. Mgbemene, a professor and the associate dean of the Faculty of Engineering encouraged the students to take the workshop sessions seriously and seize the opportunity to learn as many industry-relevant skills as possible.

“Key into the opportunity, learn as many skills as you can because these skills are what you would be needing in the future,” he urged the students.

During the fair, the alumni of the faculty volunteered to mentor fresh graduates and undergraduates from the faculty and guide them to prepare and succeed in the industry. A mentoring system is being developed to enable students to access this industry mentorship.

Similarly, a publication on engineering career guides was distributed to participants at the fair. The publication contains career journeys and advice from Nigerian engineering professionals working in different industries across the world.

It clearly outlines the skills most needed in the industry & practical steps for students and fresh graduates to prepare for a successful engineering career. It has a foreword by the dean of Engineering, University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN). The e-book version of the publication can be downloaded here: https://bit.ly/E4Icareerguide3.