By Chidera Eke, News/Comments
Yaba College of Technology, Lagos, Nigeria, had its Maiden ‘ A day with Industry Partners’ an industry-academia joint dialogue and for mentorship innovation during the week, organized by the Centre for Linkages Partnership and International Relations of College.
Meanwhile, in his address at the gathering is the College’s governing Council Chairman, Prof. Funsho Afolabi, who said that, skills development and interactive session is a tool for subduing societal challenges other than theoretical knowledge.
He however, described the event as bridging the gap between ‘Gown and Town’, fostering academia-industry collaboration, stating that “we must align with Yabatech’s agenda, which complements the Presidential Renewed Hope Agenda and revitalizes earlier initiatives”.
Speaking further, the erudite professor, reiterated the need for clarion call for more skills development methods so as to bridge the gap between Gown and Town interrelationships, which he noted , is not to downplay the usefulness of modelling and theorization.
According to him, the College has been mostly rated as college of technology in Nigeria, with raters using “Frontal Impact Tests”, which is used to conduct ratings on polytechnics with focus on technical and vocational education and skills development, ICT, Geo-informatics and Geo-Matichs.
Delivering his address, the Rector, Engr (Dr) Ibraheem Abdul said, the motive behind the program is to build a stronger academia-industry linkages as ‘we want a symbiotic relationship whereby our esteemed industry partners can give to us and we give to them’.
He noted that, it is shared responsibilities to build a workforce that will make global standard in competence, creativity and innovation of which collaborations and linkages are of great importance.
Dr. Abdul encouraged the partners to continue engaging the college towards jointly developing required solutions for both the industry and academia.
“We want skills, we want mentorship, so that we can create a pathway for our students to gain not just theoretical knowledge but first-hand industry experience before they graduate“; he added.
On his part, the Director, Centre for Linkages, Partnership and Internal Relations, Dr. Moshood Ajala, in his remarks said the event is a testament to the college shared vision of transforming education, research and skill development to meet global standards and therefore call for collaboration .
“we recognize that strong partnerships are the foundation of progress, we bridge the gap between academia and industry through strategic linkages, foster knowledge exchange and create opportunities for our students”. “Together, we can enhance capacity building, drive technological advancements and contribute meaningfully to national and global development”; he said.
The event also witnessed the presentation of Award for Innovation among staff and students that submitted innovative project out of which five emerged tops comprising three staff and two students of the college.
Cash award prizes ranging from two hundred thousand to five hundred thousand were presented to the winners for their outstanding performance in the industry related projects.
Dr. Oloketuyi S. who came first worked on local charcoal stove received ₦500,000, while Dr. Ofodile Lauretta that came second worked on cooking utensils and got a cash prize of ₦300,000 and the third position went to Mr. Chinatoye Simeon with cash gift of ₦200,000.
Others were outstanding two students who participated but came fourth and fifth are Olorunfemi Emmanuel and Olatunbosun Oluwatofunmi and were presented cash prize of ₦150,000 and ₦ 100,000 respectively.
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