Perceived Benefits of TVET by Youth-Trainees in Selected Veta Institutions in Arusha Region, Tanzania (Published)
This study investigated the youth trainees’ perceived benefits of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in VETA institutions in Arusha City, Tanzania. The study was guided by three research questions: 1) What are the benefits of TVET to trainees? 2) What are the challenges facing TVET in the studied institutions? and 3) What should be the remedies? The study employed a cross-sectional survey research design. The sample had 130 trainees, 15 trainers, and three programme coordinators, making 148 total participants. Data collection integrated questionnaires, interviews, and document analysis guides. The researcher analysed the data statistically and thematically. Results also show that the youth-trainees perceive the TVET courses were very beneficial to them, especially through the acquisition of employability skills. However, TVET is facing challenges such as inadequate training facilities and materials, inadequate trainers, and insufficient infrastructure. The study concludes that the TVET opportunity was well received by the trainees, because it is beneficial to them. This study recommends four ways of addressing the challenges facing TVET in the studied institutions.
Keywords: Arusha, Benefits, Challenges, TVET, Tanzania, VETA, youth-trainees
Students’ Life Goals, Their Awareness Category and Cognizance on the Benefits of Higher Education (Published)
This study aims to determine the level of participants’ perception on the different life goals. This paper would like to investigate also the level of participants’ awareness on the benefits of higher education, and the most dominant category of their awareness are also be looked into in this paper. The descriptive design of research was utilized in this investigative work. The survey checklist form was administered to the students who are enrolled in the first semester of the academic year 2015-2016 in one of the private colleges in Muscat, Oman. The findings of the study declared that the participants’ goals in life like career, pleasure, and public service are reasonably important while their family is important only at some extent. Furthermore, knowledge on the benefits of higher education is at a reasonable extent and they are aware that they could develop their skills through higher education. It is also learned that mastery is the most dominant category of their awareness level and followed by experience category. This finding leads the researchers to conclude that these group of participants had a liberal perception. It is delightfully found that they are judiciously aware on what higher education could contribute to their life as they continue to grow in the field of their forthcoming professions. Moreover, the category of their awareness level when wisely utilized coupled with their experiences could pave the way and lead them towards their brighter future.
Keywords: Awareness Category, Benefits, Higher Education, Life Goals
AWARENESS OF VIRTUAL LEARNING AMONG STUDENTS OF TWO NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES: CURRICULUM IMPLICATIONS (Published)
This study investigated the extent of awareness of virtual learning among students in two public universities in Anambra State. Guided by two research questions, a sample of 640 year three students was used. The survey research design was used. A researcher-developed questionnaire titled “Virtual Learning Awareness Questionnaire” (VLAQ) was used to collect data. The findings indicated that a greater percentage of the students were unaware of what constitutes virtual learning and its’ benefits. There were also differences between male and female students’ awareness of what constitutes virtual learning and its benefits. The findings imply that the students lacked much knowledge of what virtual learning entails and the benefits to their curriculum offerings. Consequently, they are not likely to highly engage in virtual learning to enrich their course curriculum. This could limit their global participation and make them lag behind other students in the international arena. Besides, the extent of awareness was higher for female than male students. There is the implication that this trend would result in gender gap in virtual learning against male students in the future. It was recommended that efforts should be made to improve virtual learning of students and such efforts would need to be targeted at reducing any gender gap and integrating virtual activities in curriculum delivery
Keywords: Benefits, Information and Communication Technology, awareness, curriculum content, global participation, virtual learning