The Future of the Countries development lies in the youths who are mainly with raw talents begging for supports. They need our help. This was the conclusion of Engr Mrs Funmi Akingbagbohun at the recently concluded Energy Forum Conference in Lagos.
She stated this while presentation a paper titled: “NIMechE Innovation Challenge: Bridging the gap between Ideas and Execution” during the plenary session. Akingbagbohun, who is the Chairperson Nigerian Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Lagos State Chapter also noted that Opportunity doesn’t translate into reality unless it meets preparation and that both institution and the individuals must be prepared for opportunity so that they can tap into it.
Speaking on NIMechE Innovation Challenge, sponsored by the Royal Academy of Engineering, UK, she noted that “talents abound in Nigeria and Africa from every institution among our graduates begging to be unearthed and developed.” While calling on the international organisations to emulate the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Africal Catalyst Programme and “support African efforts at unearthing these gems”
In her presentation, she linked energy crisis and unemployment situation in Nigeria. And noted that many companies have shut down or reduced staff strenght in bid to cut cost. And energy crisis is among the factors that impacted on the companies
Listing some of the efforts of NIMechE, so far in assisting the young engineers to include internship programme, Workshops and seminars for the young engineers, partnering with companies like Toyota Nigeria in distributing training equipment to tertiary institutions among others.
Engr Akingbagbohun who is also the Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, Ikeja Branch traced the journey of the NIMechE Innovation Challenge Competition back in time and thanked the Royal Academy of Engineers and project Manager partner, IBLF for making the vision a reality. However, she warns that more still need to be done as there are other hidden talents
Great credit to Royal Academy of Engineering for the funding and IBLF for the partnership. She said that the NIMechE Innovation Challenges benefited from the African Catalyst Programme of Royal Academy of ENgineering, UK as part of the efforts to boost engineering capacity in Africa. The overarching aim is to ensure there is sufficient, and appropriately skilled, local engineering capacity to participate in and drive national and regional development in sub-Saharan Africa.
This competition is targeted at students in the Mechanical Engineering departments in ten (10) tertiary institutions across Lagos State. It aims to support the discovery of ideas that offer local solutions to identifiable problems in agriculture, power supply, renewable energy and automation. The goal is to stimulate job/enterprise creation and the contribution to our national economy .
She advised the Young Engineers to not be negative and avoiding the professional association because of their challenges, but rather deepen their contact and relationship with their various Associations to For meaningful Impact , it is necessary for the Students and Graduates to have contact with the practicing Engineers. This provides greater impetus for application of their knowledge and also in discovering which of their works is realistically executable in the real world
Training and development of Young Engineers does not and should not end in the classroom. Attending of Conference, Seminar, professional gathering offer a lot of opportunities for development as well as new ideas inspiration
When we do little, we can do great!
Training and development of Young Engineers does not and should not end in the classroom. Attending of Conference, Seminar, professional gathering offer a lot of opportunities for development as well as new ideas inspiration
When we do little, we can do great!
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