Sustaining Building Construction Technologists Self-Employment Through Competency Based Training (Published)
The study determined competency based training as a practical tool for sustainable self-emploment of building construction technologists in Enugu state. Two research questions were answered and two hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The population for the study was 115 practicing building construction technologists. Instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire. Two experts validated the instrument for data collection. The internal consistency of the instrument items was determined by the use of Cronbach alpha reliability method and 0.84 reliability coefficient was obtained. The data generated were analyzed using mean to answer research questions while t-test was used to test the hypotheses. Findings revealed that competency based training have the potentials to foster and sustain self-employment of building construction technologists. It can sustain self-employment of building construction technologists by equipping them with common building construction competencies such as in-depth knowledge of construction practice, building drawing and interpretation competencies, building performance analytical competency and, determination of building materials behaviours among others. It was recommended that strong partnership between training institutes and dynamic building construction industries should be encouraged. This partnership would provide an environment for students to interact with experts such that, up-to-date competencies that meets labour needs would be transmitted to participating learners.
Keywords: Self-employment, Sustainability, building construction technologist, competency-based training
Training Of Office Technology and Management Education Students for Job Demands and Self-Employment in Ekiti State, Nigeria (Published)
Office technology and management (OTM) education is an integral part of business education programme in Nigeria. The course is expected to provide occupational skills for its recipients in business or office related occupations either as employees or self-employed. However, it has been observed that most graduates of this progamme at both colleges of education and university levels are unemployed despite the presumed acquired skills and knowledge. In view of this, the study sought to examine the training of OTM education student vis-à-vis the job demands in business environment in Ekiti State, Nigeria. Thus, three research questions are raised and answered. The research design adopted descriptive survey. The population of the study consisted of 4,030, made up of 15 OTM lecturers in College of Education, Ikere Ekiti and Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti and all the 4,015 registered operators/managers of private establishments with the Ministry of Commerce and Trade in Ekiti State in 2018. The sample of the study was 1,220 respondents made up of the entire 15 OTM lecturers in the two institutions and 1,205 randomly selected respondents across the 16 local government areas, representing 30% of the population of the operators of business establishments. Mean and standard deviation were used to analyse the three research questions. The results revealed that most of the needed ICT facilities for effective training of these students to meet job demands are not enough and that most OTM lecturers require additional ICT- related training to produce competent and qualified OTM education graduates for improved employability. Thus, the study concluded that most OTM education graduates are not adequately prepared to meet the expected job demands in a technologically-driven office environment. It is therefore recommended that government should provide needed modern-day instructional facilities for this programme and sponsor OTM lecturers on relevant ICT packages.
Keywords: Education, Self-employment, Training, job demands, office technology and management