Career Education as an Impetus for Poverty Reduction and the Role of Adult Education (Published)
Career education and adult education are increasingly recognised as critical levers for addressing unemployment, inequality and poverty in Nigeria. Career education equips learners with vocational, entrepreneurial and digital skills that enhance employability and income-generation, while adult education provides inclusive and flexible platforms for lifelong learning. This paper explores the nexus between these two domains, situating career education within adult learning as a driver of poverty reduction and sustainable development. Drawing on human capital theory and Freirean critical pedagogy, it argues that adult learners gain not only technical competence but also empowerment to engage critically with socio-economic structures. Using a narrative review of recent literature (2015–2025), the paper synthesises evidence showing that well-designed career education reduces poverty by aligning training with local labour markets, integrating entrepreneurship and financial literacy, and targeting disadvantaged groups such as women and rural dwellers. It also highlights barriers including fragmented policies, inadequate funding, limited facilitator capacity, and socio-cultural constraints, which hinder effective implementation. To strengthen career education in adult education, the paper proposes innovative strategies such as embedding digital literacy, promoting entrepreneurial incubation, expanding community-based delivery, and adopting blended, employer-linked training models. The analysis concludes that integrating career education into adult learning frameworks offers a realistic, scalable pathway to poverty reduction in Nigeria, provided it is supported by coherent policies, sustained financing, and strong partnerships with stakeholders.
Keywords: Adult Education, Career education, Poverty Reduction, Sustainable Development
Adult Education and Human Capacity Building for Community Sustainability in Nigeria (Published)
The economic, social and environmental issues threatening humans as well as continual existence of communities in Nigeria, requires the contribution of all. Adult members, constituting greater portion of the country’s population, are seen as agents through which the economic, social and environmental challenges facing communities as well as the countries can be addressed. However, solutions to the plethora of issues confronting community sustainability, requires greater number of the adult’s population possessing the requisite knowledge and skills through education. Education seen as a powerful instrument for social change, helps reduce social and economic issues like poverty, hunger, crime, unemployment, social inequalities, disease, just to mention but few, and give individuals the opportunities to live fulfilled life. Although, education is categorized into formal, informal and non-formal dimension, this study specifically reviews literatures on adult education and human resources capacity building for community sustainability in Nigeria. From the contents of the literature reviewed, it was indicated that adult education programmes contributes towards sustainable growth, successful employment, self-reliance and access to justice for all in communities in Nigeria. Thus, adult education equips individuals with knowledge as well as skills capable of enhancing their potentials as well as capabilities in making effective contributions towards the social, economic and environmental sustainability of communities in Nigeria.
Citation: Uzoagu I.F (2023) Adult Education and Human Capacity Building for Community Sustainability in Nigeria, International Journal of Vocational and Technical Education Research, Vol.9, No.2 pp.1-12
Keywords: Adult Education, Community, Education, Human Capacity Building, Sustainability
Active Educational Techniques and Effective Learning of Human Resources (Published)
This article attempts to explore the relationship between active educational techniques and effective learning in vocational training centres. In particular, the effect of active educational techniques on the effectiveness of the adult educational process is explored. The analysis of the findings highlights, first of all, the great need for the use of adult learning techniques, their importance and their positive educational outcomes. In addition, it is noted that the most important reasons for abandoning an adult program are inefficiency in learning and lack of respect.
Keywords: Active Learning Techniques, Adult Education, Adult Learners, Learning Outcomes, Vocational Training Centres