ABSTRACT

Abstract

This paper examined the relevance of technical education to labour market requirements and its graduates’ employability in Nigeria. Descriptive survey design was used for the study. A sample of 4 public universities in the south west Nigeria that offer Technical Education was drawn using purposive sampling technique. While simple random sampling technique was used to select 5 lecturers in the department of Technical Education from the sampled universities. The study developed and used a questionnaire tagged “Technical Education & Graduate Employability Questionnaire (TEGEQ)” with a reliability coefficient of 0.83. Inferential statistic of Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation was employed to analyse the data and the null hypotheses developed for the study were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that there was significant relationship between technical education and competencies required by potential employers; graduates’ skills to progress within an enterprise; graduates’ abilities to compete effectively in the job market. Finally, there was significant relationship between technical education and graduates’ potentials to be self-employed. It is therefore recommended among others that Technical education needs to be given the necessary attention and support by Nigerian government so as to ensure it responds to the labour market needs as well as future manpower requirements.

 Keywords: Skill Acquisition; Technical Education; Job Requirement; Competences; Unemployment.