Abstract
Students’ industrial work experience scheme is a cooperative skill acquisition training scheme organized by Industrial Training Funds (ITF) in collaborations with supervising agencies, higher institutions and employers of labour. This study assessed the benefits derived from SIWES by fish farmers by interviewing 55 fish farmers that accept SIWES students in Ogun State with the aid of the interview guide. Data were analysed descriptively using frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation. Results revealed that the majority of the fish farmers had fish farming as a primary occupation (89.1%) and had fish farming experience of 1-10 years (85.5%) with mean fish farming experience of 7.49±5.83 years. Majority of the fish farmers allowed SIWES students access to farm facilities (96.4%), provided enlightenment to students on work related issues (83.6%) and encouraged SIWES students through provision of farm produce and refreshment after tedious works (72.7%). High proportions of the fish farmers benefited through an increase in input supply (83.6%), improved technology due to the students’ contribution of knowledge (56.4%), organized training by SIWES officials (58.2%), extension advisory services (67.3%), and lower unit cost of production (63.6%). Also, SIWES was favourably perceived by majority (81.2%) of the fish farmers. The fish farmers were faced with challenges such as the nonchalant attitude of SIWES students, inadequate accommodation for SIWES students and feed wastage by SIWES students. It is therefore concluded that fish farmers benefited socially, technically and economically from SIWES. It is therefore recommended that all the fish farmers in Ogun State be encouraged to accept SIWES students on their farms as this will improve their productivity.
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