Technical Human Capital Obsolescence and Age Relationship in the Building Construction Industry: A case of Nigeria (Published)
The Building Construction Industry (BCI) is among the businesses that depend on the agility and viability of the workforce. Consequently, it invests heavenly in the development of employees’ knowledge and skills, otherwise known as human capital. However, individual’s human capital is bound to deteriorate owning to atrophy (nonuse of skills) and inevitable changes, which could be as a result of ageing process, wear, injuries, and/or illnesses, in the individual. This deterioration is known technical human capital obsolescence. Thus, using descriptive study, this paper investigates technical human capital obsolescence in the BCI and its relationship with workers’ aging. Three research questions guided the study and questionnaire was administered to 387 randomly selected BCI workers. 278 questionnaires representing 71.83 percent were successfully completed and returned. The data were analyzed using mean, standard deviation, Pearson Correlation Coefficient, Kruskal-Wallis H test statistics and SPSS software. The findings indicate, among other things, that, individual’s technical obsolescence due to wear is not a function of age. It is recommended that the industry and her workers intermittently evaluate their skills with the view of finding the specific obsolescence and providing measure(s) to alleviate its effects in the industry.
Keywords: : Human Capital, Industry, Nigeria, Technical, age relationship, building construction, obsolescence
STAFF-PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT TOWARDS TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION: MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS FOR UNIVERSITY GRADUATE EMPLOYABILITY IN CROSS RIVER STATE, NIGERIA (Published)
University graduate employability rests on university personnel to enhance their employability skills and attitude in Technical and Vocational Education (TVE). University management in Nigeria seems to undermine the right university academic staff in skills and qualities that could contribute to graduate employability in global marketplace. Therefore, this study aimed at investigating staff-personnel management towards technical and vocational education and its implications for graduate employability in Cross River State, Nigeria. It was designed to provide a baseline information for policy-management on education in university knowledge production towards increased productive output. This descriptive survey design study has two hypotheses formulated to guide the study while the related literatures were reviewed. Sample size of 400 university academic staff was drawn from a population of 2,239 members of academic staff from the two universities studied using stratified random sampling technique. A researcher designed questionnaire was used to collect information from the respondents. Data was statistically analyzed using population t-test and independent t-test statistics. Results revealed that staff-personnel management towards TVE was not significantly low and also, not significantly dependent on ownership of the university. It was recommended among others that university management should establish a better work relations between TVE institutions and the labour market for positive inputs and better students’ orientation to the world of work.
Keywords: Employability, Technical, University, Vocational, staff-personnel