Bridging the Skills Gap of Graduates of Technical Colleges and the Industries in Nigeria (Published)
The skills gap that exist between the graduates of technical colleges and the industries has limited the employability of the graduates of technical colleges in Nigeria to the advantage of expatriate skilled manpower who have taken over the jobs that are available for the teeming Nigerian youth population. The causes of the skills gap have been traced to poor funding, inadequate infrastructure and facilities in the technical colleges to poor partnership between the industries and the technical colleges amongst several other causes as numerated in the main write up. Consequently, the following recommendations are therefore proffered in order to bridge the skills gap between the graduates of technical colleges and the work places:
- A strong career orientation must be inculcated in the minds of the students of technical colleges on the relevance of general education in improving their basic skills
- Technical Colleges should maintain a close link with the industry for technical co-operation and mutual benefits
- Technical Teachers Training should be expanded to increase the capacity of instructors and teachers of technical colleges
- Training and grant opportunities available within non-governmental and international organization should be taken advantage of by the technical colleges
- Independent technical boards and commissions should be established at the various states to oversee the operations of technical colleges instead of allowing them as appendages of the general ministries of education.
Keywords: Technical Colleges, Vocational and Technical Education., skill gaps
Web-Based Application of Electrical Installation and Maintenance Work Intelligent Tutoring System in West African Technical Colleges (Published)
Digital technology has provided an effective instructional delivery paradigm in technical education, which enhances the attainment of cognitive, affective, and psychomotor skills. The purpose of an intelligent tutor as a computer-aided learning system is to complement teacher activities by providing students with relevant information via a computer interface. This study aims to develop a web-based artificial intelligence tutoring system for practical electrical installation and maintenance work for teachers in Nigerian technical colleges. Specifically, the study sought to develop the Electrical Installation Intelligence Tutor (EIIT) software, determine the effect of the tutor on students’ acquisition of practical skills, and determine students’ interest in studying electrical installation. Two research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted R&D design. From a population of 263 electrical installation students, 20 were selected to use the stand-alone method and 18 to use the web-based method. The instrument for data collection was lesson plans based on three of the components of electrical installation namely, domestic and industrial installation, and cable jointing topics as listed in the National Board for Technical Education syllabus. An achievement test and interest survey were developed and built into the software. Validation of the content of the achievement test was determined to be 0.67, while the internal consistency of the survey was 0.89. The null hypotheses were tested through analysis of covariance at the 0.05 significance level. Results show that use of the tutor caused the students to be more highly interested and motivated. Thus, the authors recommend intelligent tutor
Keywords: Electrical Installation, Intelligent Tutoring, Technical Colleges, Web-Based