TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE i
APPROVAL PAGE ii
CERTIFICATION iii
DEDICATION iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT v
TABLE OF CONTENTS vi
LIST OF TABLES ix
LIST OF FIGURES xi
ABSTRACT xii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1
Background of the Study 1
Statement of the Problem 8
Purpose of the Study 11
Significance of the Study 11
Research Questions 13
Hypotheses 13
Delimitation of the Study 14
CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 16
Conceptual Framework 16
Concept of Technical Work skills 19
Plastic Production 23
College of Education (Technical) 24
Technical Work-Skills Required in Plastic Production 25
Compounding 25
Moulding 32
Reinforcing 52
Joining 61
Machining 71
Decorating 80
Theoretical Framework 91
Theory of Need 91
Theory of Production 93
Review of Related Empirical Studies 96
Summary of Literature Review 101
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY 102
Design of the Study 102 Area of the Study 102
Population for the Study 103
Sample and Sampling Technique 103
Instrument for Data Collection 103
Validation of the Instrument 104
Reliability of the instrument 104
Method of Data Collection 105
Method of Data Analysis 105
CHAPTER FOUR: PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA 107
Research Question One 107
Research Question Two 109
Research Question Three 111
Research Question Four 113
Research Question Five 115
Research Question Six 118
Testing of Hypothesis 121
Findings of the Study 135
Discussion of Findings 145
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATION 154
Restatement of the Problem 154
Summary of the Procedure Used for the Study 156
Major Findings of the Study 157
Implications of the Study 158
Conclusion 159
Recommendation 160
Suggestions for Further Studies 160
REFERENCES 162
APPENDICES 175
Appendix A: Letter of Request for Validation 175
Appendix B: Letter of Request for Completion 176
Appendix C: Result of Reliability Test 184
Appendix D: Result of Data Analysis 186
Table LIST OF TABLES Page
1 Mean Ratings of the Responses of the Respondents
on Technical Work-Skills Required by College of Education
Graduates in Compounding of Raw Plastic Materials 107
2 Mean Ratings of the Responses of the Respondents on
Technical Work-Skills Required by College of Education
Graduates in Moulding Plastic Materials 109
3 Mean Ratings of the Responses of the Respondents
on Technical Work-Skills Required by College of
Education Graduates in Reinforcing Plastic Materials 111
4 Mean Ratings of the Responses of the Respondents
on Technical Work-Skills Required by College of
Education Graduates in Joining Plastic Products 113
5 Mean Ratings of the Responses of the Respondents
on Technical Work-Skills Required by College of
Education Graduates in Machining Plastic Products 115
6 Mean Ratings of the Responses of the Respondents
on Technical Work-Skills Required by College of
Education Graduates in Decorating Plastic Products 118
7 t-test Statistics of the Responses of Plastic Production
Technicians and Lecturers on Technical Work-skills
Required by College of Education Graduates in
Compounding Plastic Materials 121
8 t-test Statistics of the Responses of Plastic Production
Technicians and Lecturers on Technical Work-skills
Required by College of Education Graduates in Moulding
Plastic Materials 123
9 t-test Statistics of the Responses of Plastic Production
Technicians and Lecturers on Technical Work-skills
Required by College of Education Graduates in Reinforcing
Plastic Products 125
10 t-test Statistics of the Responses of Plastic Production
Technicians and Lecturers on Technical Work-skills
Required by College of Education Graduates in Joining
Plastic Products 127
11 t-test Statistics of the Responses of Plastic Production
Technicians and Lecturers on Technical Work-skills
Required by College of Education Graduates in Machining
Plastic Products 130
12 t-test Statistics of the Responses of Plastic Production
Technicians and Lecturers on Technical Work-skills
Required by College of Education Graduates in Decorating
Plastic Products 133
Figure LIST OF FIGURES Page
1 The Schema of the Conceptual Framework of the Study 90
2 Maslow’s Pyramid of Human Needs 92
Abstract
The study was carried out to identify technical work skills required by College of Education (Technical) graduates for self employment in plastic production industries in Rivers State while six research questions were posed and answered by the study, six null hypotheses were formulated and tested at p≤0.05 level of significance. The study adopted descriptive survey research design and was carried out in Rivers State, Nigeria. The population for the study consists 104 respondents which include twenty eight (28) lecturers in Technical Education and seventy six (76) technicians in the five plastic industries in Rivers State. Due to manageable size of the population, the entire 104 lecturers and technicians were involved. Therefore, there was no sampling for the study. The instrument used for data collection is 157-item structured questionnaire titled “Required Plastic Work-skill Questionnaire RPWSQ”. The instrument was subjected to face-validation by three experts. The validates’ suggestions and inputs were taken into consideration in developing the final draft of the questionnaire that was used for data collection. To test for internal consistency of the instrument, Cronbach alpha reliability technique was employed, to obtain reliability coefficient of 0.84 for compounding plastic material, 0.81 for moulding plastic, 0.76 for reinforcing plastic, 0.83 for joining plastic, 0.69 for machining plastic products and 0.75 decorating plastic products. The overall reliability coefficient of 0.79 was obtained for the entire instrument. The data for the study were collected by the researcher with the help of four research assistants. Out of the 104 copies of the questionnaire administered, 101 copies were duly completed and retrieved representing 97% return rate. The data collected were analyzed using mean to answer the research questions and t-test for testing the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Based on the data collected and analysed, the study identified 52 technical work-skill items very highly required and 105 technical work-skill items highly required by college of education graduates in plastic production for self employment in plastic industry in Rivers State. On the hypotheses tested, the study found that there was no significant difference in the mean ratings of the responses of lecturers and plastic technicians on the technical work-skills required by technical education graduates for self employment in plastic industry in Rivers State. Based on the findings of the study, the study among others recommended that all the identified technical work-skills be used for improving the existing curriculum of technical programmes of Colleges of Education and Universities with technical education programme in the country, and that all the identified technical work-skills in plastic production be integrated into the programmes of skill acquisition centres in the state to take care of skill needs of the vulnerable youths and other groups with desire for salable skills for work in the area.
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
The quality of education and training given to youths depend greatly on the ability of the institution to adjust their educational course content to the changing skill requirement of the nation. According to Manyindo (1995) educational institutions such as Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education are expected to provide knowledge and training that satisfy the human resources demand of the nation.
College of Education according to Federal Government of Nigeria (2004) is one of the tertiary institutions that provide knowledge, skills and training to students for the production of teachers and skilled personnels who shall be enterprising and self-reliant. The goals of College of Education Technical as stated in the National Policy on Education (2004) include: to encourage further the spirit of enquiry and creativity in teachers, to provided teachers with the intellectual and professional background adequate for their assignment and make them adaptable to changing situations, to provide the technical knowledge and skills necessary for agricultural, industrial, commercial, economic, and educational development of Nigeria, to give training and impart the necessary skills for the production of technicians, technologists and other skilled personnel who shall be enterprising and self-reliant.
The National Policy on Education (2004), when further to state that at the Nigerian Certificate in Education (NCE) and degree levels, education programmes shall continue to be expanded to also cater for the requirements of technical, business and special education. It is on this statement, that the system of education made far reaching innovative changes for all level of education. These changes are in two broad areas as follows: widening of the curriculum to bring in more subjects that are relevant to the stated national objectives (Basic Technology is one of the subjects among others); and deepening the subject contents (Okeke, 1995).
Basic Technology is a prevocational subject which is supposed to provide students with a process orientation in production and consumption through experiences in producing and servicing industrial goods which plastic production is among. Other are metals, woods, ceramics, glasses and rubbers. The graduates of college of education technical are the technical teachers who are to inculcate the learning processes, involving technical work skills (practical oriented) to meet the objective of teaching Basic Technology in the Basic secondary schools according to Ivowi (1981) are to provide students with the technological literacy required for everyday living and to provide vocational/technical orientation for further development of employable skills and training in technology.