The Provost of the Lagos State Cooperative College (LASCOCO), Mr. Akorede Ojomu, has disclosed that all academic programmes of the institution will comply with the requirements of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) to make it a foremost training ground for cooperative education and management learning in the country.
Ojomu, who disclosed this during a working visit of the NBTE Accreditation Panel to the College, stated that working with the Board had helped the institution in appraising and upgrading the state of learning facilities in the College, in conformity to the realities and demands of a 21st Century educational system.
He stated further that the institution’s academic programmes, which are all in line with the requirements of the NBTE, were painstakingly conceived to make the College a hallmark for cooperative education and related studies.
The Provost maintained that the Institution would provide qualitative entrepreneurial education to the youthful and enterprising populace while at the same time mobilise cooperative financing for start-ups and business growth.
His words: “Our decision to commence the National Diploma programmes in Cooperative Economics and Management, as well as Micro Finance and Enterprise Development, stems from our desire to carve a niche for the college as a specialised Institution of learning with a special focus on the provision of entrepreneurial education for the youthful and enterprising population whilst also mobilising cooperative financing for start-ups and business growth”.
“Towards this end and in appreciation of our emerging status, we are leveraging opportunities available to us as an educational institution of the Lagos State Government to take deliberate actions that would help to enrich the contents of these programmes in line with the guidelines and curriculum of the NBTE”, he added.
Disclosing that the institution plans to increase the number of buildings on the existing facility, the Provost also hinted that the college would ultimately move to a permanent site.
“We are not unaware of the need to plan for our expansion in the nearest future and in this respect, a proposal for the development of an additional block within this facility is already being presented to the State Government for inclusion in the Year 2022 Budget of the institution. Also, it must be stated that we are equally making frantic efforts to facilitate the allocation of 10 hectares of land by the State Government to the institution for the establishment of our permanent site”, the Provost revealed
Mr. Oyebowale Raji, Chairman, Governing Council of LASCOCO, disclosed that the accreditation exercise was a major milestone in the life of the college and is very crucial to the achievement of its mandate as stipulated in the enabling Act.
Raji noted that the accreditation process of the College’s programmes stemmed from constant liaison with the NBTE and other similar sister organisations, as well as collaboration with the Lagos State University both as a mentor and partner.
On his part, the leader of the NBTE team, Mr. Aliyu Lemu, expressed optimism on successful accreditation for the college with the existing facilities, adding that the sole aim of the visitation panel was to assess how far the institution had gone and also advise on areas of improvement before final communication from NBTE.
