AN ASSESSMENT OF WORK PLACE PERFORMANCE OF GRADUATES OF TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION

AN ASSESSMENT OF WORK PLACE PERFORMANCE OF GRADUATES OF TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the study

Governments throughout Africa, particularly in Nigeria, are working to encourage technical and vocational education in schools because they believe that workers are more productive when they possess the necessary skills.

The development of technical and vocational education in Africa is increasingly being reformed to make it more alluring, efficient, and effective, according to Abban and Quarchie (1996).

According to African governments, one of the most significant aspects of technical and vocational education is its focus on the workplace, with the curriculum placing a strong emphasis on how trainees perform in real-world settings.

The African Union’s 2007 report also underlined the continent’s present goals for reforming technical and vocational education, which will encourage the acquisition of skills through competency-based training. The promotion of sustainable livelihoods and responsible citizenship will necessitate ability testing for work if this goal were to come to pass.According to Roeske (2003), in order to achieve the objective of work place performance of technical and vocational graduates, the Nigerian Industrial Skills Development Center was founded in 2002. This center was tasked with gathering the financial and material resources necessary for achieving and promoting excellence in skills training. It works closely with the Association of Nigerian Industries and the Nigerian Employers Association. The government is working to create skilled technical and vocational personnel through a number of additional organizations, including the Opportunities Industrialization Center, the Integrated Community Center for Employable Skills, and the Department of Social Welfare’s Vocational Centers. To prepare talented and skilled technical and vocational workers for the labor market, further cutting-edge initiatives like the Skills Training and Employment Placement (STEP) and the Vocational Skills Project were also maintained (Roeske, 2003).Graduates of technical and vocational education are also receiving extra and enhanced practical skills to enable them to launch their own businesses from the Regional Appropriate Technology Industrial Service and the Intermediate Technology Transfers Units. The anticipated outcome of all these actions was not achieved.

Statement of the problem

Due to the severe negative effects it has had on the country’s economic production, the subpar performance of graduates in other fields has turned into a threat. The majority of technical institute graduates have not been able to find employment in their respective fields of study, so despite the various interventions to ensure that they are well-equipped with the necessary practical skills for the job/labour market and the campaign about the benefits of technical and vocational education, it has not attracted the youth in the southern Nigerian region to move into technical and vocational training at all.Many graduates of technical and vocational education—mostly young people—leave the country for low-paying jobs in the south due to the graduates’ poor transition from school to the workforce. According to the current state of affairs, technical vocational training programs provided by technical institutes may not adequately prepare students for employment in southern Nigeria and elsewhere, which has had a substantial negative impact on Nigeria’s socioeconomic growth.