Ekpobodo, Ovwigho Raymond

Ivanova, T.

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eLibrary National Mining University

Ekpobodo Ovwigho RaymondT. Ivanova, research supervisorPeoples’ Friendship University of RussiaENGINEERING EDUCATION AS WAY TO KNOWLEDGESOCIETYA group of business and university leaders, highlight innovation as the singlemost important factor in determining Nigeria’s success throughout the 21stcentury. Due to them there should be national innovation initiative for engineeringeducation promotion for the country which needs marketing solutions that willraise competiveness of Nigeria among other African countries.Nigerian’s challenge is to unleash its innovation capacity to driveproductivity, standard of living, and leadership in global markets. At the time whenmacro-economic forces and financial constraints make innovation-driven growth amore urgent imperative than ever before, Nigerian businesses, government,workers, and universities face an unprecedented acceleration of global change,relentless pressure for short term results, and fierce competition from countries thatseek an innovation-driven future for themselves.With the help of engineering education as marketing solution in Nigeria, thecountry would become one the fastest developing and growing economies in theworld. Engineering education in Nigeria may create awareness and new ideas tothe people of the country generally, it can reduce the unemployment rate and it willraise the manpower to high level. Engineering education will open doors tomarketing to show to the people of the country where to set up small business, andto which countries export goods.Some years back the engineering education was still very poor compared tothe present generation. Today every country introduces high technologies ineconomic life due forming generation of engineers.  As example we can takeJapan, China and India. These countries show miracles in the global economy inthe field of marketing development and economy growth as they centered theireducational policy on knowledge society and knowledge workers. They are makinghuge investments in human capital where education is a part of it, and ininnovation development which is not possible without highly prepared personnel.Japan, China and India manage to develop and to maintain certain economicstability in global recession by using innovative technology to improve theireconomies, to revive businesses environment and to make effective marketing ofconsumers need and preferences.Compelling incentives exist for Nigeria to examine the quality of itsengineering education. The most important reason is that engineering education iscrucial for economic growth. Current theories of long run growth identify twoways in which this process happens. One way is that skilled engineering personneldrive technological innovations through research which in turn lead to larger socialproductivity increases. The other way is that – even in the absence of significantresearch output – a country with a engineering skilled labor force has betterchances of growing than one with a lesser engineering skilled workforce. It isbecause engineers are the most important representatives of the personnel in sphereof production.Advertised Job Openings in the Nigerian Economy, 2011 - 2012Sub-sector1st Quarter19911st Quarter19931st Quarter19941st Quarter19961st Quarter19971st Quarter19981st Quarter1999Total 1991-1999%Engineering 191 18 267 23 136 16 118 30 65 17 53 18 72 10 902 19ComputerServices97 9 79 7 52 6 19 5 61 16 35 12 72 10 902 9Administration 176 16 159 14 249 30 109 28 68 18 61 20 73 10 415 19Accounting 147 14 173 15 139 16 44 11 87 23 49 16 80 11 895 15Marketing 132 12 90 8 84 10 61 16 67 18 51 17 9 1 719 9Education 96 9 71 6 74 9 10 3 5 1 20 7 1 0 439 6Insurance 30 3 40 4 17 2 6 2 5 1 2 1 2 0 277 2Agriculture 34 3 23 2 1 0 4 1 4 1 -- -- 6 1 100 2Health 165 15 245 21 93 11 18 5 13 4 31 10 390 56 72 20Total 1068 10 1147 1084510 389 10 375 10 302 100 703 10 955 10Source: Labor Market Quarterly Report, NISER, IbadanThis table shows that the Nigerian economy is in great need in engineeringcadres for its development as well as in IT specialists. These factors show thegrowing character of the Nigerian economy and strive for development of itsproduction sphere.The relationship between economic power and level of advancement inengineering and IT technology has long been recognized. This is evident from thefact that the technologically advanced nations wield both economic, marketing andmilitary power. It has been suggested that the fundamental cause of thebackwardness of developing nations is their low level of technologicaldevelopment. The technological break-through by the developed countries was notachieved by accident but by careful planning and execution of developmentalprograms. Engineering education plays a prominent role in achieving such break-through. The level of economic development and marketing of any nation dependson its level of human resources development, particularly in science andtechnology. The level of technological advancement achieved by any nation hasbeen found to be a function of the quality of its engineering education and not justthe quantity of its natural resources. Japan, one the most advanced nations in termsof technology is known to have little natural resources. It has been reported that thedifference between a developed, rich and prosperous country and an undeveloped,poor and wretched country is the difference in their levels of scientific, engineeringand technological advancement. Every system of engineering education is based onsome philosophy or outlook of life and every educational system reflects thedominant characteristics of the people who produce it. The educational system of anation would therefore be expected to have relevance to the developmental needsof such society. There should be a State policy to create knowledge society and toform knowledge workers.References:1. Labor Market Prospects of University Graduates in Nigeria2. Mafe, O. A.T. 2002, Refocusing Engineering Curricula inDeveloping countries for Endogenous Technology Development andEntrepreneurship. Proc. African Regional Conference on EngineeringEducation and Sub – Regional Workshop on New Engineering curriculum,University of Lagos in partnership with UNESCO, 23 – 25 September 2002.Lagos, Nigeria, pp 327 –340.3. http://milproj.dc.umich.edu/publications/EngFlex_report/download/EngFlex%20Report.pdf4. http://www.raeng.org.uk/international/pdf/Engineering_Change.pdf5. http://www.ciitconsulting.com/edesk/publicfolder/us_survey.pdf

ENGINEERING EDUCATION AS WAY TO KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY

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ENGINEERING EDUCATION AS WAY TO KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY

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