The nation’s top cement firm, Dangote Cement Plc, has introduced a unique internship program for university students. Under this program, students will complete a one-year internship that is entirely supported by the company.
At the Yaba College of Technology’s pioneer student induction, Mr. Tunde Mabogunje, the regional sales director for Dangote Cement in Lagos, stated that the program was created to give exceptional engineering students in Nigerian higher education institutions a hands-on, practical work experience.
According to a statement he issued, the program is a part of Dangote Cement’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and provides engineering students with an exceptional chance to apply the skills they have learnt in labs and classrooms to real-world scenarios.
Through the integration of both theoretical knowledge and hands-on, real-world experience, students will become well-rounded engineers.
According to Mobogunje: “We are kicking off this phase of the scheme in Lagos and Kano States. A total of 20 students are involved with 10 students selected from each of the two states. In selecting the interns, we wrote to the authorities of Yaba College of Technology and Kano Polytechnic requesting for the list of the best performing students in Building Studies.
“We are to train the selected students on the right application of cement with specific reference to Dangote Cement in accordance with Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) prescriptions. The interns are to be deployed to various building project sites while technical officers from Dangote Cement will be on the ground to monitor them,” Mobogunje added.
As revealed by BrandSpur local news brand, the Dangote Boss stated that the project demonstrates the company’s conviction that obtaining vocational and technical skills is essential to the health of every industry in particular as well as the economy as a whole.
He had this to say: “They are vital prerequisites for growth. However, the dearth of vocational and technical skills has hurt the building sector. This internship programme is apt and a major step in the right direction towards addressing the gap. As trainees gain practical field experience, they will be well-prepared to become well-rounded professionals and make significant contributions to the industry.
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“At Dangote Group, we are committed to providing vocational training to young Nigerians to equip them with a range of valuable skills. To address gaps in some of our plants, we recruited graduates from engineering and technology-based programmes and trained them in various aspects of industrial operations. These technicians were subsequently deployed to our plants in Obajana, Ibese, Gboko, as well as our sugar and salt refineries in Apapa and Ikeja. They have demonstrated that, with the right training and orientation, young Nigerians excel in every assignment they undertake.
Continuing: “For our oil refinery and fertiliser plant, we recruited hundreds of graduates of Engineering based courses and sent them abroad for training. This set of professionals are now running the new plants and are training other sets of engineers through skill transfer.
“We provide vocational training programmes for our host communities. The youths are veritable assets in any society and the quality of the youths determines the outlook of tomorrow’s society. Therefore, an investment in developing vocational skills among youths will yield the desired results,” he added.
Yaba College of Technology Rector Engr. Ibraheem Adedotun Abdul praised Dangote Cement management for the initiative, calling it a historic success in corporate social responsibility.
He expressed his happiness that Yaba College of Technology had been selected as a pioneer institution for the program and gave his word that the participating students from the college would perform to the expected level and that the program’s goal of closing the gap between academic performance and real-world experience would be accomplished.
According to the Rector, the program would expose students to real-world applications in their field of study, preparing them for success as professionals after graduation by equipping them with the skills they need.
