Skill Improvement Needs of Self-employed Technical College Motor Vehicle Mechanic Graduates in Plateau State.
ABSTRACT
The study was carried out to determine the skill improvement needs of self-employed technical college motor vehicle mechanic graduates in Plateau State. A survey research design was used for the study. The population for the study was 66 self-employed technical college motor vehicle mechanic graduates, 15 supervisors from automobile industries. A structured questionnaire was used as instrument for data collection.
Five research questions and five null hypotheses were formulated. Cronbach alpha method was used to determine the reliability coefficient in the instrument which yielded 0.92. Weighted mean and improvement needed index (INN) was used to analyse the data for answering the research questions while t-test statistics was used to test the hypotheses of no significant difference at 0.05 level of significance.
It was found that self-employed technical college motor vehicle mechanic graduates in plateau state need improvement in 14 skills to carryout engine maintenance, 5 skills for maintenance of steering system, 2 skills for servicing and maintenance of braking system; 6 skills for repairs and maintenance of autoelectricity and 8 skills needed for transmission reconditioning work.
INTRODUCTION
Motor vehicle mechanic is one of the trades offered in technical colleges. The trade is designed to equip the trainees with employable and profitable skills. The trade is vocational in nature, it exposes students to skills. Olayinka (2009) asserted that motor vehicle mechanic is designed to produce competent auto mechanics craftsmen for Nigerian technological and industrial development.
According to the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) (2001), motor mechanics craftsmen are expected to test, diagnose, service and completely repair any fault on a motor vehicle according to the manufacturers’ specification. It was in the light of this that the Federal Government of Nigeria emphasized the implementation of automobile technology in her educational system (FGN 2004). According to Ogwo (2004), automobile technology has transformed vocational education to be technological in nature.
Agbionu (1991) asserted that technology education means vocational preparation that indicates combination of education and training based directly on experience at work in the formal school system.In the report of NBTE (2004), the aim of motor vehicle mechanics in technical colleges is to give training and impart the necessary skills leading to the production of craftsmen, technicians and other skilled personnel who will be enterprising and self reliant.
To buttress that, the federal government of Nigeria (FGN, 2004) stated that automobile technology is that form of education that leads to the acquisition of practical and applied skills as well as basic scientific knowledge that will enable individuals to be self reliant and useful members of the society. Okorie (2001), defined skills as expertness, practical ability, tact and dexterity through the repetitive performance of an operation. Thus knowledge and skills are required and learnt in motor vehicle mechanics trade.
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StudentsandScholarship Team.