Hindrances to Skills Acquisition in Technical College Motor Vehicle Mechanics Work Programme in Niger State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study surveyed the hindrances to skill acquisition in technical college Motor Vehicle Mechanics Work (MVMW) programme in Niger State, Nigeria using a 21 item 5-point rating scale questionnaire on a population of 397 respondents which comprised of 42 MVMW teachers and 355 MVMW students from all the seven technical colleges situated in Niger State, Nigeria. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while z-test statistics was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The questionnaire was validated by three lecturers from Industrial and Technology Education Department, Federal University of Technology, Minna and the reliability of the instrument was found to be 0.89 using Cronbach Alpha reliability statistics. The hindrances were broken into teacher related and student related factors to skill acquisition. Findings of the study revealed among others that: the MVMW teachers are faced with the hindrances of non availability of adequate training facilities to teach practical skills needed by industry while the MVMW students are faced with hindrance posed by acquisition of obsolete skills that cannot enhance industrial development. The study recommended among others that the National Board for Technical Education and all stakeholders should provide adequate practical skill acquisition facilities and periodically organize practical training in the work skills required by automobile industry to enhance industrial development in Nigeria.