TECHNICAL VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING (TVET) AND PRIVATE SECTOR PARTNERSHIP FOR NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT.

Abstract

A great need has arisen for more people to engage in private ventures. Government, non governmental organizations and individuals put all efforts at encouraging entrepreneurship in vocational disciplines as a way out of the poor state of the Nigerian economy which is greatly compounded by high rate of unemployment of the youths. Technical Vocational Education and Training at present suffers from serious deficiencies in terms of trained teachers and this is more so for the technical professions. The impact of the present brain drain in Nigeria, which has resulted in the massive loss of educated and skilled workforce, further compounds the problem.  This paper is therefore focused mainly on technical vocational education and training (TVET) private sector partnership for national development. The study used survey research design. A population of 60 Business education lecturers of College of Education, Warri and FederalCollege of Education (Technical), Asaba was surveyed for the study. The entire population was studied because of its small size. 10 female lecturers as well as 16 male lecturers were randomly selected from College of Education Warri. In the same vein, 10 female lecturers and 14 male lecturers were also randomly selected from federal college of education (Technical) Asaba. A thirty item questionnaire was used for data collection. It was administered face to face to the 60 lecturers. The reliability of the instrument was established through split-half method. The correlation of the sets of scores using Pearson Product Moment Correlation ‘r’ yielded a co-efficient of 89 (r – 0.89). The questionnaire was face validated by two lecturers from College of Education Warri. The study showed that there is no significant difference between the perception of male and female lecturers in Colleges of Education on the various ways TVET private sector partnership can enhance the realization of TVET Programme objectives. Curriculum and teaching methods are not responding to labour market demands, lack of qualified, competent and motivated teachers, absence of key instruments for TVET development such as sufficient fund.  Based on the findings therefore, it was suggested that the Federal /State government should collaborate with private enterprises to ensure the provision of qualified teachers as well as learning facilities/equipment for TVET programmes.