Partnerships for Knowledge Production: A Panacea for Skills Acquisition for Sustainable Development through Vocational Education in Nigeria (Published)
This paper focused on partnerships for knowledge production as a panacea for skills acquisition for sustainable development through Vocational Education in Nigeria. Although the government of Nigeria is emphasizing Entrepreneurial Education to promote skills acquisition for economic growth, the government has failed to match it plans with concrete actions by way of financial support and provision of facilities to enhance proper preparation of the learners for skills acquisition at graduation. Skill acquisition is the sole aim of Vocational Education. A survey of some programmes in the Universities has shown that this programme (Vocational Education) is organized without practicals due to lack of facilities such as workshops and laboratories with modern equipments. Students who offer computer education in most cases are not exposed to practical experience. This is applicable to other areas of Vocational Education as well. This paper highlighted other challenges such as lack of implementation of research results in Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET), lack of students exchange and linkage programmes in some Universities. Finally, among other recommendations, the paper raised the need for Federal and State governments to allocate a substantial amount of funds in their yearly budgets for proper implementation of Vocational Education programme in Nigeria.
Keywords: Nigeria, Skills Acquisition, Sustainable Development, Vocational education, knowledge production, partnerships