RETIREMENT EDUCATION PROGRAMMES FOR THE EMPOWERMENT OF RETIREES IN KOGI STATE, NIGERIA
ABSTRACT
This study investigated Retirement Education Programmes for the empowermrnt of retirees in Kogi State of Nigeria. The study made use of a descriptive survey. Five research questions and five null hypotheses were generated to guide the study. The population of the study comprised 34688 retired civil servants in Kogi State. The sample for the study was made up of 260 male retired civil servants and 240 female retired civil servants drawn through random sampling technique. Questionnaire was used as the instrument for data collection. The entire research questions were analyzed using mean and standard deviation, while t-test statistics was used to test the five null hypotheses. The findings of the study indicate that Family education programme help in the empowerment of retirees in Kogi State to a high extent in the following ways: helps retirees build strong communication skills, develop good decision-making skills, develop positive self-esteem among others. Entrepreneurship education programme help on the empowerment of retirees to a great extent in Kogi State in the following ways: raise awareness of career opportunities for retirees, helps retirees to become self-reliant, and reduce poverty among retirees among others. Cooperative education programme help on the empowerment of retirees to a great extent in Kogi State to a great extent in the following ways: enables retirees rto receive career training, gather more work experience in government, gather more experience in business among others. Constraints to the use of retirement education programmes for the empowerment of retirees in Kogi State include: inadequate funding of the programmes, inadequate number of teachers, appointment of unqualified teachers among others. Strategies to curb the constraints to the use of retirement education programmes for the empowerment of retirees in Kogi State include: provision of adequate fund by government, institutions and other relevant bodies for the establishment and management of retirement education program, creating awareness for retirees on the existence of retirement education programmes among others. With respect to the hypotheses; there was no significant difference in the mean responses of male and female retirees on the extent to which family education, entrepreneurship education, and cooperative education programme help in the empowerment of retirees in Kogi State. There was no significant difference in the mean responses of male and female retirees on the constraints and strategies to curb the constraints to the use of retirement education programmes for the empowerment of retirees in Kogi State. Implication of the study to Adult Education and recommendations were highlighted. It was recommended that the policy makers should put in place post-retirement packages capable of making lives of retirees comfortable.