A call has gone to technologists and technical staff to show high level of professionalism in the course of discharging their duties in the University. The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Olusola Oyewole, made this call at a 2-day training workshop on Laboratory Quality Control and Assurance for Laboratory Technologists. While advocating for effective service delivery by every member of staff of the University, most especially, technologists, he said “if there is something we need at such a time as this in this University, it is professionalism”.
“As professionals, we should be identified by the type of values with which we work. I believe that it has come to a time that all of us will need to be committed to the values of excellence, to the value of focus in what we are doing, to the values of quality in whatever we do and we need to imbibe the culture of excellence in whatever we do”, he stated.
He decried the attitude of some people, who talk only of naira and kobo or what they could get out of the system without thinking of how they could impact positively on the system and “this should not be the case in FUNAAB. Rather, the mark of our professionalism should be in people who know what they are doing”.
The Vice-Chancellor admonished Technologists and Technical Staff never to see themselves as second-class members of the University, but be rather proud and committed to their laboratory services and always strive to upgrade themselves at every given opportunity.“I want to challenge you as technologists, to note that for this University to move forward, it is not just the academic staff that we need or the administrative staff. I want you to know that you; technologists are very important and let me also put on record that without technologists, I would not be where I am today because you were instrumental to my research activities”, he added.
The Vice-Chancellor stated that “Professionalism is an attitude, where a person exhibits a high degree of excellence in whatever he or she has to do. Professionalism also involves showing a high level of discipline and commitment to whatever task that you have at hand”.Oyewole noted that as professionals, people do not need to be pushed to do their work but should rather work to satisfy their own conscience; bearing in mind that they had done their best.
The Acting Director, Directorate of Technologists and Technical Staff (DITTECS), Mr Olajide Ojo, disclosed that the objective of the workshop was to promote measureable improvement in teaching and research laboratories, with a clear departure from the classical tradition, by embracing continuous and quality laboratory services.
According to him, the role of the laboratory in higher education cannot be overemphasised in the areas of science, technology, medicine and agriculture because laboratories enable students develop their practical skills, gain experience of a phenomenon, develop scientific argument and formulate hypotheses that would help to reinforce theoretical understanding in problem-solving.
Mr Ojo, however, noted that the workshop may not be sufficient to guarantee efficient operation, but would rather go a long way in changing the attitude of technologists to work, as he said, “today marks the beginning of change in our attitude to work as we have started to create awareness on the principles of Quality Assurance; both technically and emotionally”.
Resource persons present at the training workshop included the Director of Laboratory Service of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Mrs Stella Denloye and the Lead Auditor/Vice-Chairman, Institute of Public Analysts of Nigeria (IPAN), Mr Femi Oyediran.