QUEST INSTITUTE EXPERIMENTS WITH EXPERIENCE-BASED LEARNING

Holistic development of human capacity is a core of our mission at Quest Schools. This objective has been recurrently achieved in all our ventures, including the Quest Institute, prompting the initiatives of experience-based education for vocational students in the field of fashion and confectioneries.

The Quest Institute is the vocational arm of the Quest schools, saddled with the responsibility of harnessing the potential of underserved talents in the areas of vocational and artistic endeavours. So far, our quest to leverage the instrument of human capacity development for national and transformative development has been yielding impactful results. In March 2023, our second cohort of fashion students was taken to Kinox Clothings and Man n Queens, to evaluate the industrial practices of cloth making, running concurrently with the trip our confectioneries students made to Nifty Cakes and Sweets, where they had first-hand exposure to the reality of pastry-making from established practitioners in the field.

According to the coordinator of the institute program, the excursion to fashion and confectionery establishments was necessary to help nurture the drive of the students, particularly those who had begun to trivialise the credibility of the training they were undergoing at the institute. “We noticed that most of the students just came to learn skills because it's free, and also to while time away till they gain admission, not that they really have big dreams out of the skill”, the institute director confessed to our media representative. The idea of an excursion to the fashion and confectionery establishments was therefore pertinent to refuel the interests of the institute students.

During the visit to Nifty Cakes and Sweets, the CEO of the establishment, Mrs Olapade Praise, meticulously expounded the students on the industrial demands of pastry making in Nigeria. She also shared the motivation for her career in snack making, the significant challenges she has faced in the career, and the potential factors that contributed to her success.

While the students already have been exposed to the fundamentals of their craft with the aid of conceptual and hands-on practices, the excursion to Nifty Cakes and Sweets, and Man N Queens was a more needed eye opener to the students and management of the Quest Institute, providing invaluable insights into the fashion and confectionery business world, improvement in skill development, product delivery, and overall business sustainability. A noteworthy perspective on product marketing for the students was also significantly underscored during the excursion— the importance of qualitative graphical representation of products for increased consumer engagement was made explicit to the students and their educators.

The Edgar Dale’s cone of experience states that learning activities are best consummated with direct purposeful experiences. It is not surprising why children, as do adults, learn best when they have direct contact with the object of instruction, underscoring the importance of experience-based learning in academic and vocational education. The effort of the Quest institute to ensure a more experiential learning process for their students, signals to the intentionality of the Quest establishment towards the holistic development of underserved talents and marginalised populations in Nigeria, beginning from the Southwestern region.

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