EMPLOYERS’ ASSESSMENT OF THE GENERAL WORK SKILLS AND WORK ATTITUDES POSSESSED BY ELECTRICITY ELECTRONICS GRADUATES OF FEDERAL COLLEGE OF EDUCATION (TECHNICAL) BICHI, KANO STATE.
Abstract
This study was carried out to assess the general work skills and work attitudes possessed by electricity/electronics graduates of Federal College of Education (Technical) Bichi, Kano State. Four research questions were developed and answered by the study while four null hypotheses were formulated and tested at P ≤ 0.05 level of significance. The study was carried out in Kano State. It made use of survey research design. The population of the study was supervisors of registered 538 small-scale, medium-scale and large-scale privately and publicly-owned industries and establishments in the State. The sample on the other hand was 93 which were also made up of 68 supervisors of privately-owned establishments and 25 supervisors of publicly-owned establishments in Kano State. Proportionate random sampling technique was used to draw the sample from the population. A structured questionnaire was used to obtain data from the respondents for the study. The questionnaire was validated by three experts from the Department of Vocational Teacher Education, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. To determine the reliability coefficient, a trail testing of the research instrument was conducted using 15 supervisors of both government and private-owned establishments that employ graduates of Electricity/Electronics program of Federal College of Education (Technical), Asaba, Delta State. Cronbach’s alpha reliability method was now used in which a coefficient of 0.925 was obtained. The questionnaire was administered by the researcher with the help of three research assistants across the State. The entire 93 copies of the questionnaire administered were retrieved representing 100% retriever of the questionnaire. The data collected were analysed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions while t-test statistics was used for testing the null hypotheses (Ho) at P ≤ 0.05 level of significance and 91 degree of freedom (df). The study found out that the general work skills, practical/technical skills and work attitudes possessed by the graduates of electricity/electronics program of Federal College of Education (Technical) Bichi, Kano State were not satisfactory. The study also identified ways through which the skills of the students of electricity/electronics of Federal College of Education (Technical) Bichi, Kano State could be improved upon to enable them to be relevant to the needs of the employers. In summary, there was no significant difference in the mean ratings of the responses of the respondents on 80 out of the 87 identified items in the study. Based on the findings of this study, it was recommended that, all the identified work-skills be used for improving the existing curriculum of electricity/electronics program of Federal Colleges of Education (Technical) in the country. This will help enhance the quality of graduates being produced by the colleges. Also, all the ten identified ways through which the skills of the students of electricity/electronics program could be improved upon should be implemented by the school administration in collaboration with other related agencies for quality assurance of the graduates.