SKILLS IMPROVEMENT NEEDS OF AUTOMOBILE TECHNICIANS FOR EFFECTIVE MAINTENANCE OF MODERN AUTOMOBILE IN PLATEAU STATE
ABSTRACT
The study was carried out to investigate the skills improvement needs of automobile technicians for effective maintenance of modern automobile in Plateau State. Survey research design was used for the study. The population for the study was 65 practicing automobile technicians and 14 lecturers/instructors from Federal College of Education (FCE) Pankshin and Plateau State Polytechnic (PSP) Barakin Ladi. A structured questionnaire was used as instrument for data collection. Three research questions and three null hypotheses aided the study. Cronbach alpha method was used to determine the reliability coefficient of the instrument which yielded 0.85. Weighted mean and improvement needed index (INI) was used to analyze the data for answering the research questions while t-test statistic was used to test the hypotheses of no significant difference at 0.05 level of significance. It was found that automobile technicians need improvement in twenty seven skills for servicing modern automobile engine and its support systems, thirteen skills for diagnosing faults in modern automobile engine and its support systems and nine skills for repairing faults on modern automobile engine and its support systems. The study also found that: (i) there was no significant difference between the mean responses of lecturers/instructors of automobile technology in Polytechnics/Colleges of Education and practicing automobile technicians in Plateau State on skills improvement needs of automobile technicians for servicing the modern automobile engine and its support systems (ii) there was no significant difference between the mean responses of lecturers/instructors of automobile technology in Polytechnics/Colleges of Education, and practicing automobile technicians in Plateau State on skills improvement needs by the automobile technicians for diagnosing faults in modern automobile engine and its support systems (iii) there was no significant difference between the mean responses of lecturers/instructors of automobile technology in Polytechnics/Colleges of Education, and practicing automobile technicians in Plateau State on skills improvement needs by the automobile technicians for repairing faults on modern automobile engine and its support systems. It was recommended that all the automobile technicians should be retrained on how to service, diagnose faults and repair all kinds of modern automobiles; it was also recommended that government and individuals should donate modern tools and equipment to automobile technicians in the study area.