A new student-led initiative at Nigeria’s Federal University of Health Sciences, Ila-Orangun, aims to give prosthetics and orthotics students earlier and more meaningful exposure to professional practice.
The FUHSIPOSA Industry Outreach Initiative, known as FIOI, has been created to strengthen connections between students, established P&O professionals, rehabilitation facilities and the wider assistive-technology industry.
The initiative was announced by Israel Ogundipe, a Prosthetics and Orthotics student and President of the university’s Prosthetics and Orthotics Student Association.
Ogundipe said the idea emerged from observing a recurring gap within the student community. Students want to understand their chosen profession, find mentors and explore career opportunities, but the pathway between university education and professional practice can remain unclear.
FIOI intends to address that gap through four principles: Connect. Expose. Learn. Grow.
Exposure before graduation
Prosthetics and orthotics education combines academic knowledge, clinical reasoning, technical fabrication and direct interaction with patients. Although classroom and laboratory training provide an essential foundation, students also need to understand how services operate in real clinical and commercial environments.
FIOI seeks to create opportunities for:
- Visits to P&O facilities and rehabilitation centres
- Mentorship from practising professionals
- Knowledge exchange between students and clinicians
- Exposure to different career and practice settings
- Professional networking
- Collaboration between students, facilities and industry
- Greater awareness of rehabilitation technologies
The objective is to help students observe professional workflows, ask informed questions and begin developing industry relationships before graduation.
This exposure could introduce students to areas including patient assessment, clinical documentation, multidisciplinary rehabilitation, workshop management, material selection, digital manufacturing, quality systems, device maintenance and patient follow-up.
Connecting education with professional reality
The Federal University of Health Sciences, Ila-Orangun, is located in Osun State and includes Prosthetics and Orthotics within its Allied Health Sciences programmes. View the university’s academic programmes.
For an emerging P&O programme, structured engagement with external professionals and facilities can complement formal education by showing students how theoretical principles are applied under everyday service conditions.
Students may also benefit from seeing the diversity of possible career pathways. Graduates can work in hospitals, rehabilitation centres, private P&O facilities, manufacturing, research, product development, education, humanitarian programmes, public health and assistive-technology businesses.
Industry exposure can therefore help students identify the skills and experience needed for different roles.
Mentorship as a professional resource
Mentorship is one of FIOI’s central priorities.
A mentor can help a student understand professional expectations, reflect on career choices and develop confidence in communicating with patients and multidisciplinary teams. Mentors may also introduce students to specialist areas of practice that are difficult to explore through classroom teaching alone.
However, effective mentorship requires structure. Participating professionals and student leaders could establish clear objectives, meeting schedules, boundaries and expected outcomes for each mentoring relationship.
Group mentoring, case discussions, technical webinars and facility-based observation may allow a limited number of professionals to support a larger student population.
Opportunities for Nigerian P&O facilities
FIOI offers hospitals, rehabilitation centres, private practices, manufacturers and professional organisations an opportunity to contribute directly to workforce development.
Possible forms of participation could include:
- Hosting supervised facility visits
- Providing professional career talks
- Demonstrating clinical or fabrication workflows
- Supporting student research and innovation projects
- Offering structured mentorship
- Sharing internship and placement opportunities
- Introducing students to quality and regulatory requirements
- Sponsoring educational activities or technical workshops
Any patient-facing activity should remain properly supervised and follow the facility’s consent, confidentiality, safeguarding and clinical-governance requirements. Industry outreach should support formal education and approved clinical placements rather than replace them.
Building a stronger profession
FIOI reflects a wider discussion taking place across African P&O education: students want to participate in shaping the future of their profession, not simply wait to enter it after graduation.
Earlier contact with practising professionals can help students form realistic expectations, identify skill gaps and understand the responsibilities associated with providing individually designed assistive devices.
The initiative may also benefit the profession itself. Clinics and companies gain contact with future graduates, educators receive feedback about changing practice requirements, and students bring new ideas about technology, research and service delivery.
As Ogundipe explained in announcing the initiative, identifying a gap is not enough; practical action is required to close it.
FIOI is currently presented as a student-led effort to create that action. Its longer-term value will depend on sustained participation from the university, clinicians, facilities, professional bodies and responsible industry partners.
If developed with clear educational objectives and appropriate governance, it could provide a useful model for improving the connection between P&O classrooms and professional practice across Nigeria and the wider African region.
- Israel Ogundipe on LinkedIn
- Federal University of Health Sciences, Ila-Orangun
- FUHSI Academic Programmes