Improvement of Graduate Skills Acquisition through University Collaboration with Industry for Sustainable Transformation in Nigeria.

Abstract

The study explores strategies to improve graduate skills acquisition through university collaboration with industries for sustainable transformation in a developing economy. The study was carried out in north central states of Nigeria. Two research question and two null hypotheses (Ho) were formulated to guide the study - Survey research design was adopted for the study and total of 100 respondents consisting of 60 university academic staff and 40 industrial personnel constitute the population sampled from 3 universities and 5 industries from the zone. Structured questionnaire was designed and validated by 5 experts, was used for data collection and analyses using mean, standard deviation and t-test statistics. The Ho was tested at 0.05 level of significance. Findings show a gap between industries and universities therefore, recommended among others a joint consultative forum in designing and implementation of curriculum for training industrial technology graduates and engaging/utilizing of research work of graduates in improving the industrial sector.