AN ASSESSMENT OF WORKPLACE PERFORMANCE OF GRADUATES OF TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION

CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.1 Introduction

Throughout the world, and in particular the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, governments are renewing efforts to promote technical and vocational education and training (TVET) with the belief that skill formation enhances productivity and sustains competitiveness in the global economy. According to Bhuwanee (2006), in recent years, concerns have been raised by most African countries about the move towards making TVET complementary to post-basic education. Abban and Quarshie (1996) pointed out that the paradigm shift towards practical skills training with TVET in Africa is increasingly being reshaped to make it more attractive, efficient and effective. One of the most important features of TVET, as recognized by African governments, is its orientation towards the world of work with the curriculum emphasizing the acquisition of employable skills. African Union (2007) report also stressed the current vision of African countries in developing a new strategy to revitalize TVET in Africa. The expectation is that TVET will promote skills acquisition through competency-based training. If this vision should materialise, it will require proficiency testing for employment in order to promote sustainable livelihoods and responsible citizenship. To achieve this goal of practical skills acquisition, Roeske (2003) explained, the Ghana Industrial Skills Development Centre was established in 2002. This centre, working in close collaboration with the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) and the Ghana Employers Association (GEA), was tasked to harness the financial and material resources required for achieving excellence in skills training. A number of other institutions like Integrated Community Centre for Employable Skills (ICCES), the Opportunities Industrialization Centre (OIC) and the Department of Social Welfare’s Vocational Centres are part of government’s effort to produce skillful technical personnel. Other innovative programmes like the Skills Training and Employment Placement (STEP) and the Vocational Skills Project (VSP) were also put in place to turn out skillful technical personnel for the job market (Roeske, 2003). The Ghana Regional Appropriate Technology Industrial Service (GRATIS) and Intermediate Technology Transfer Units (ITTU) are also providing TVET trainees with additional and enriched practical skills to enable them set up their own enterprises. National development is an exploitation and utilization of both human and material resources to improve the lots of a nation. It involves the improvement of the social welfare of the people of that nation. Education on the other hand, is particularly acknowledged as the cornerstone to any form of development as well as democratic processes. In Nigeria, Vocational and Technical Education is the form of education perceived to be the greatest weapon that can be used to bring or achieve a quick desirable changes or development in the country’s economic, political, sociological and human resources. Technology unarguably emerged as the dominant factor in determining the wealth of a nation. The technology applied in Nigeria today has been imported which impact negatively to the development of our indigenous technology (Habibu, 2007). No nation can be self reliant without developing and utilizing her indigenous talents and technologies. According to Abdullahi (1993), development in Technical and Vocational Education are intimately linked to the general trends in the economy and labour markets which are particularly susceptible to the effects of technology changes. It is believed that the promotion of technical and vocational education would enable an individual to be better, more useful and productive citizen of the society for a sustainable development in Nigeria. To clarify issues raised here, the research seeks to examine the following:

• Technical and vocational education overview.
• Goals of technical and vocational education in Nigeria.
• Concept of National development.
• Technical and vocational education and productivity.
• Constraints of effective TVE development in Nigeria.

2.2 DEVELOPMENT OF TVET IN NIGERIA

Ngome (1992) noted that TVET in Nigeria attracted increasing attention during the 1970s, because of the expectations that practical skills training as offered by TVET institutions would address the need for skilled labour. As a result of these developments, many African governments started technical and vocational education institutions modelled after those of their former colonial powers. The technical skills acquired were supposed to raise individuals’ job prospects and productivity. As a result, enterprises were expected to become more competitive and make a greater contribution to economic growth, on condition that those trained in these institutions actually matched the requirements of the labour market. However, public TVET institutions, according to Atchoarena and Esquieu (2002), continued to attract a great deal of criticism. First, they were unable to train skilled workers to meet the requirements of enterprises and were unaware of the need for continuing education. Second, they were extremely costly. Often, the graduates of these institutions joined the ranks of the unemployed, an indication that the training provided did not match the jobs available. In many countries, including Ghana, public TVET institutions have not been able to adapt to the new structure of the labour market and the new skill requirements of companies in both the formal and informal sectors. It is commonly accepted that all forms of education will help people to improve themselves and to get better jobs, but many parents believe that only a university education will offer their children the opportunity to acquire a good job. As a result, many countries find that the number of graduates from universities far exceeds the capacity of the labour market to provide appropriate employment. At the same time, these countries are unable to attract enough people to train for those positions of greater need, which might be ‚blue collar‛ jobs that might appear to involve manual labour, be dangerous, dirty and difficult (Commonwealth of Learning, 2001).

2.3 GOALS OF TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION IN NIGERIA

The goals of technical and vocational as costive in the national policy on education (2004) shall be to:

• Provide trained manpower in the applied science and technology and business particularly at craft, advanced craft and technical level.
• Provide the technical knowledge and vocational skills necessary for agriculture, commercial and economic development.
• Give training and impact the necessary skills to individual who shall be self-reliant economically

2.4 CONCEPT OF DEVELOPMENT

Development has been defined in different forms, from physical development to mental development which include social and economical well being of an individual as well as that of a nation and the world at large. Development in human society is a complex, many sided phenomenon and means different situation and to different thinkers. (Adenle and Olukayode, 2007). It can mean development of infrastructures such as road, hospital, airports, dams, school etc, as well as development of people in terms of education and health care, even sport and likes. Agbionu (1994), define development in term of education in the levels of poverty, illiteracy and unemployment and income inequality perhaps at the individual level growth in knowledge , skills attitude and enhance ability to service are example of development. At the society level, development is associated with modernization, material advancement, industrialization, scientific and industrial progress, new knowledge about men and the universal improvement in standard of living , decrease in lots of living and social security management towards social tribal and gender equality, decrease in unemployment and availability of job opportunities. Aghenta in Adenle and Olukayode (2007) opined that development is any position changes, which bring about desirable benefit to the individual and the society. From the aforementioned definitions, the role of technical and vocational education in the development of Nigeria are evidenced.

2.5 TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PRODUCTIVITY

Productivity is the ratio of output to inputs in production; it is a measure of the efficiency of production. Productivity measure the economic growth of a country. This cannot be achieved without growing the labour productivity which depends on three main factors, investment and saving in physical, capital, new technology and human capital. Higher productivity is a means to better levels of economic well-being and greater national strength. Technical and Vocational Education is often seen as a product of human resourcefulness. This is to say that the technological progress of any nation depend on the level of resourcefulness by her people which in turn is the direct reflection of the quality of training and meaningful development in education of that nation. Agbionu (1994) argues that training development of manpower to provide the skills that will enable the worker to work more efficiently is an important part of productivity improvement. He explained further that, whichever process a nation wants to adopt in the development of its technology, the system of technical and vocational education provides the bedrock on which the activities of technology development have to be funded. This is because any technology system involves specific arrangement of labour and capital in the production process, and capital parse, is a product of human knowledge. The mere fact that technical/vocational education is indispensable for productivity growth is a key factor for national development implies that technical and vocational education plays a vital role in national development. On the other hand, to attain great achievement of productivity and sustainable economic environment and natural development in this modern world, appropriate attention and optimum recognition are to be given to the promotion of Technical and Vocational Education in Nigeria.

2.6 THE ROLE OF TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION IN NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

As earlier highlighted, the primary purpose of technology education is useful employment for adults and young who are preparing to enter occupations in agriculture, business, home-making, industrial and technical fields. Technical and vocational education played a vital role in national development, especially in areas which include the following:

1. Generation of employment/creation of job opportunities: Technical and vocational education helps to reduce the rate of drop outs or unemployment in the society. Technical/vocational education could be used to developed marketable skills in students/youths so that they can become easily employable. It makes an individual to become an asset to him and the nation and also prevent him from being a liability to the society.

2. Industrial development: Technical and vocational education helps a nation develop technologically and industrially by producing people competent and capable of developing and utilizing technologies for industrial and economic development. It is a tool that can be used to develop and sustain the manpower needs of any nation.

3. Entrepreneurship strategy: Technical and vocational education offers the beneficiary the ability to be self-reliant, to be job creators and employer’s of labour.

4. Poverty alleviation: Many who are fortunate to graduate in a regular school system and excel in various fields of leaning fall back to the skills acquired in technical and vocational institutions in time of employment crisis. This has been proven right in recent time when workers of various categories were retrenched in both public and private sectors due to the deteriorating state of our economy. Such workers who possessed skills other than that for which they were previously employed had something else to fall back on and better off financially than those who had no other skills.

5. Promotion of the Nigerian Economy: It promotes the national economy through foreign exchange by exporting our products. The knowledge of technical and vocational education helps in the conversion of local raw materials, this reduces the importation of foreign goods which lessen our import dependency and encourage exportation of our local products.

6. Promotion of Nigerian Culture and Value: Technical and vocational education helps to promote the Nigerian culture and cause us to value what we have. This can be seen in the national and international appreciation of Aso-Oke work in Okene and other south western part of Nigeria.

2.7 CONSTRAINTS OF EFFECTIVE TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION IN NIGERIA

As Technical and Vocational Education is expected to meet the aspiration of Nigerian society, to shape its future and provide solutions to some of its social, political and economic issues. The development of this educational system has been identified with some constraints, which serve as hindrances to its development. The problems may not be far different from what the system has experienced in the last three decades, but many of which are in the increase as stated by Habibu (2007). The following are some of the constraints militating against effective Technical and Vocational Education in Nigeria:

• Misconception of the definition and meaning of the program.
• Wrong societal perception of the Technical and Vocational Education program.
• Weak government policy and poor implementation.
• Inadequate funding of the program.
• Lack of basic facilities and workshops.
• Inadequate qualified personnel, leaders and administrators.
• Lack of power supply in existing workshops which limit the conduct of practical.
• Problems related to curriculum of the program.
• Influence of politics on Technical and Vocational Education program.

2.8 VOCATIONAL EDUCATIONAL TRAINING (VET) AND SOCIETY

Vocational education and training and society is a very broad theme. The papers that fall in this category are quite diverse and are about cultural differences, career development, labour mobility, partnerships and drop outs. For society it is important that the quality of education is high, that there is good cooperation between the different educational institutes, and that schools have constructive partnerships with companies and other schools. They should aim on social capital building and not only on human capital. Related to this, an important role for education is the promotion of sustainability (Margeviča & Grinsbergs, 2011). Schools can contribute to this in various way, if it is only to let students come to school by bike and the separation of waste. School management has an exemplary role in this. Dietzen and Wünsche (2011) examined perceptions of employers on graduates from VET and universities. They worried that employers would rather choose for university graduates because their way of thinking makes them more flexible than VET students who however have many practical skills. But it seems there is no major shift in the recruitment policy. Regarding special target groups, Hughes and Hughes (2011) studied the relation between VET education and the deaf community. This community already focuses on social capital development and the VET system can learn from this.

2.9 VET AND CULTURAL ASPECTS

School systems vary across countries and reflect the concerning national or regional cultural beliefs. In China for example it is common practice that teachers speak and students listen. Hua, Harris and Ollin (2011) studied a communication lesson which was student-centred. Most students appreciated the interaction and role playing and they thought it was good for the development of their self-confidence. Not all students experienced it as a learning opportunity however; they perceived the activity more as entertainment and therefore did not see much added value of it. 5 | P a g e The new educational approach of the study implies a big cultural change, but eventually it may help to cultivate a new generation with the autonomy and awareness to be able to handle challenges of the global community. Another issue in education in China relates to the enormous differences between regions and especially between rural and urban regions, which is studied by Xiang (2011). Big investments are made in human capital development for people in urban areas, but educational investment in rural areas lays far behind. However, education for rural people is also very important for the economic development of China. The author is saying that not all educational resources should be invested in urban; rural development also requires the provision of educational facilities to give the rural population a better future perspective. Baqadir, Patrick and Burns, (2011) reported that in Saudi Arabia there is a gap between knowledge and skills of graduates on the one hand and qualification needs of employers on the other hand. Status is of great importance in this culture, novices are ambitious of getting good jobs with high remuneration. The authors state that it is necessary to change the educational system to establish higher quality, but that the attitude of students also needs to change.

2.10 CAREER PERSPECTIVES AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

After graduation a logical option for the graduates is to find a job in their field. But whether they indeed choose to do so depends on various factors. The article of Clark, Zukas and Lent (2011) is discussing the transition from education to the field of information technology (IT). Education for this field is very broad as the range of occupations in IT is very wide. The authors conclude that companies mostly look at qualities of graduates but the organizational context, the habitus and the resources are also important. Spierings and Meerman (2011) did research on human resources graduates and how they find their first job. They found that a student can sometimes stay with the company at which they did their apprenticeship, but most of the time they have to seek for a job. The first job acts as a stepping stone for the rest of the career, especially in times of crisis. Graduates are adjusting their expectations; at the beginning they want everything, but after a while they become more realistic. Travel time and salary get less important; they search for an interesting job in which they can develop themselves. Schweri and Trede (2011) looked at the career intentions of Swiss healthcare assistants. Graduates who think about the future mostly choose to continue their education. Other graduates choose for direct money and start working. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation play a role in this choice but also economic factors and experience. Continuing studying leads to more salary afterward. Cattaneo (2011) did research about getting a degree of Professional Education and Training (PET) on the job. He looked at direct and indirect costs and benefits. It seems that only in exceptional cases benefits do not compensate costs. Almost every candidate gets more salary after getting the PET-degree. Personal development is important in almost every occupation. Lifelong learning is needed to cope with the constantly changing knowledge economy. Not every employee believes this to be a good a desirable development. It seems that lower qualified workers have a lower learning intention and ambition as well. They tend to have a more negative view on learning and do not see the chances for development on the labour market. Possibilities employers offers do not fully reach lower qualified employees. Job autonomy or financial benefits however can stimulate the willingness to engage in training. People with a high degree of self-efficacy tend to have a stronger learning intention (Kyndt, Govaerts, Dochy & Beart, 2011). A personal development plan (PDP) can also have a positive influence on the motivation to participate in training activities and on the overall job performance. The PDP is a development tool but can also be used as a promotion tool or salary or selection tool (Beaussaert, Segers & Gijselaers, 2011). For new employees, induction takes time, but the duration of that depends on the quality of education. If a graduate has acquired many practical skills the induction time is shorter. Short induction periods give employers a positive opinion on the new employees, their attitudes and dedication to the job (Geiben & Grollmann, 2011).There is also a relationship between education, gained skills and knowledge, jobs, tasks and wage levels of graduates. Graduates with the same educational background often work on the same task content. Students gain task specific skills that influence their occupational choice (Rocher, 2011). Diverse skill combinations gave a good indication of job mobility. If the skill combination is very specific the chance that employees switch jobs is small. If competencies are similar than job mobility can occur, knowledge will not get lost and the salary will increase (Geel & Backes-Gellner, 2011). If employees have a higher education level than the job asks for, they receive a higher salary than others in the same job, but less than if they would have a job at the level of their education. Productivity is the driving mechanism behind the relationship between job complexity and salary (Tahlin, 2011). There are many employees who think that their job can also be done by someone with a lower qualification; 12% of the employees in Germany have the feeling that they are not enough challenged by their job. Because of polarisation in the work field the percentage of over-qualification has grown (RorhbachSchmidt & Tiemann, 2011).

2.11 VET POLICY, ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT

Governments, inspectorates and other institutes play an important role in educational policy making, enacting regulations and defining frameworks for VET. But at the level of the educational institution, such as schools, training centres colleges and universities, educational philosophy, mission and vision, educational policy and strategy also play a crucial in establishing quality education. There are many differences in educational policy, organization and management between countries, and many international comparisons have already been made. Nikolai and Ebner (2011) added to this field of research by making a comparison between vocational training and higher education in Switzerland, Austria and Germany. They studied the possibilities for students to follow a specific education program, to move to a different program, and to the entry requirements. They also checked the influence and vision of companies/employers on the school system. This seems to depend on how the dual system is embedded in the whole education system. VET policy Avis, Canning, Fisher, Klein and Simmons (2011) made a comparison between the policy of the English and Scottish education system. In England there are standards and a regulated framework for VET. VET in Scotland has less regulation and much more autonomy for educators to develop a meaningful program. Both systems have their advantages and disadvantages and teachers try to work as good as they can between the boundaries of the system. Both countries are interested in the development of their students and want space for autonomy. What is still needed is a deeper understanding of VET that goes further than pedagogical skills but also focuses on societal and education relations. Normand (2011) goes more into detail in the Scottish college system, namely on how they responded to the EU and national policy on lifelong learning. The Ministry of Education in Scotland has a ‘Skills for life’ strategy that focuses on the development of skills and employability. Lifelong learning needs a cultural shift regarding the esteem of competencies, knowledge and skills, but it seems that Scotland holds on to its traditions, values and principles and that these are consonant with the purpose of lifelong learning. But also in many other countries research is done about the school system. Lau and Kan (2011) focus on the school system in Hong Kong. The school system was a colonial model based on the British tripartite education system but that has developed into a comprehensive education system. Bicer (2011) did a study in Turkey, where the school system is recently restructured. The new program is student-centered, should have a better link with the labour market and focus more on generic rather than on specific competencies only. The new system is more decentralized, but this means that schools need to build a strong relation with the labour market. The changes are perceived as being positive, but there is still a gap between the intended and implemented framework. Students for example, do not know how to deal with their new independency. Kupper and Kleijn (2011) studied innovation in vocational and professional education in green education in the Netherlands. Vision, goals and strategy of the innovation policy is defined in a five years policy plan. Two main points in this plan are the quality of education and knowledge transfer. The study was about the development of a methodology for monitoring innovation achievement on the basis of identified critical success factors. Monitoring is used to stimulate learning and knowledge sharing on the one hand, and for progress reporting to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation. organization and management Educational policy development in countries is the result of decision making by the government and the stakeholders around that, such as political parties, advisory councils, boards, committees, professional associations and pressure groups. Regulations have a multi-level character. There is the acquis communautaire, national legislation and institutional regulation. How schools deal with these depends on various factors, including the perspective of the organization and management. Warmington (2011) studied the challenges and relations between organizations, diverse governments and employees. Often there is a lack of communication and there are tensions between them and the local authorities. A clear common vision on professionalism and cooperation can improve this. Not everything that is imposed from above also happens in reality. First tier management in further education have to measure up to the demands of the students, their team and the organization. But they have a limited time available so they have to make choices. This struggle causes managerial resistance. They sometimes openly resist to do something, but it also occurs that they promise they will do things that are agreed, but that they actually refuse to do it. Resistance occurs because of a lack of time but also on fundamental objections. But resistance does not always have to be seen as something bad, it can also be regarded as act of participation instead of separation (Page, 2011). In companies, managers also need to recognize larger and smaller gaps of skills and knowledge. If not, this results in a lack of motivation of employees, poor customer service and the leave of employees who perform well. Skills gaps also influence the goals/planning and market position. Most managers report that skills shortages occur because of changes in the market or organization, a lack of qualified candidates and insufficient time and money for professional development. The gaps are biggest in smaller companies because of poor recruitment systems, though in most cases motivation in these companies is higher (Lindorff, 2011). Lifelong learning is important for everyone, and small companies should not be excluded from that. Franz (2011) writes about the perspectives on teaching in a knowledge society. It seems that every group of people, teachers, managers and the administrative staff, look at new learning in a way it does not force them to take action. They see it for example as a matter of re-badging, or as a way to exchange learning methods, but not as something that really needs change and implementation.

2.12 CHALLENGES IN FORMAL TVET SECTOR IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Lauglo and Lillis (1988) posited that one dilemma which has preoccupied many countries for a long time is whether to concentrate investment in general or vocational education. But, in human capital terms, general education creates ‚general human capital‛ and TVET leads to‛specific human capital.‛ The former has the advantage of flexibility and, therefore, the possibility of moving from one job to another, while the latter does not. In this regard, many people consider general education as a suitable type of education that is capable of responding to economic and labour force changes in society. On the other hand, technical and vocational education has the advantage of imparting specific job-relevant skills which make the worker more readily suitable for a given job and more productive. Hence, both are important. It is in this light that most educational systems in Africa try to combine both general and vocational streams of education in varying proportions to suit their educational goals and aspirations. Conversely, Carnoy (1993) noted that, despite the advantages of imparting job-related skills and the high level of unemployment amongst those with general education, the recognition and preference for general education by the youth in the Sub-Saharan Africa is high. The reason for this is that personnel in administrative and leadership roles are generally chosen from people with a general education background. Therefore, talking about the importance of TVET, without any deliberate action to follow up the rhetoric, will not change its poor image and low status

2.13 CHALLENGES OF SKILL ACQUISITION IN FORMAL TVET

Within the early 1990s, numerous concerns were raised about the effectiveness of TVET in Ghana. Nyankov (1996) summarised these concerns concluding:

• Poor quality in the delivery of TVET programmes;
• High cost of training;
• Training not suited to actual socio-economic conditions;
• Disregard of the needs of the informal sector; and
• Disregard of the labour market and high unemployment rate among graduates (p.15)

In an attempt to address these challenges, Reddan and Harrison (2010) argued that TVET institutions need to restructure their programmes to be responsive to the needs of the job market, especially the industry. To achieve this goal, TVET curricula must focus on outcomes in terms of the skills, knowledge and attitudes required industry. That is, TVET provision should be responsive to the demands of industry. King and McGrath (2004) argued that with TVET being more diverse because of the changes in the labour market, it should be able to integrate the youth into the working world. Given the prevailing economic trend, UNESCO (2004) identified the two major objectives of TVET as the urgent need to train the workforce for self-employment and the necessity to raise the productivity of the informal sector. They point out that lack of resources have led to cuts in the volume of training provided in public institutions. These cuts are a hindrance to pursuing the critical objectives of providing training and raising production. Considering the expensive nature of TVET as a form of education, it is imperative that an expanded system with necessary and adequate facilities and equipment will lead to the effectiveness of the system. Related studies carried out by Islam and Mia (2007) in Bangladesh revealed that both formal and non-formal TVET lacked an effective linkage between training and the world of work. It further noted that because of its lack of coherent mode, practical skills training which does not produce the requisite skills for the job market. Additionally, the trainees also lacked training experience, initiative and motivation to discharge their duties effectively.