THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION  

The contemporary realities of the Nigerian work environment are that it had not been absorbing the youths in gainful employment over the years, as it should be. The youths have also not been sufficiently absorbed in the vocational education and training schemes to promote their potentials to generate the following satisfaction indices.

- Enabling the beneficiaries to grow from the skill training to the point of creating jobs.

- Encouraging individual trainee to become creative enough to create jobs for himself or herself and others.

- Causing a positive change in the attitude and orientation of the individual trainee towards his or her occupation.

- Making the trainees be self-reliant and self-sustaining, thereby creating job opportunities for other unemployed persons in order to re-position the Nigerian society for economic growth.

- Creating opportunities for re-training for self-improvement.

The appraisal of the foregoing satisfaction indices has equally raised issues, ranging from Skill, structural, occupational and training (Ekong, 1999), and we have discussed some of them as follows: 

 Skills Training Issues

The issue of skills training is for the programme to provide unemployed persons with cognate skills that are relevant to his or her occupational needs. The questions that emanates from this type of training are:

- How relevant are the vocational education and training programmes to the needs of Nigerian youths for useful living in the society?

- Are the learners practically exposed to the manipulation of tools, equipment and other facilities likely to be met in the actual work situation?

- Has the training provided the relevant appreciations and understandings of the technological changes in the society?

- Have the learners been well prepared to take independent decisions about his or her career choice?

- Have the beneficiaries of vocational education and training been able to develop the abilities to solve problems?

In addition to these questions, we have raised four issues on structure, occupation; re-training and Polytechnics that we feel need urgent attention.

Structural Issues

There seems to be a structural gap as the access from one level of vocational education and training to another is not possible in Nigeria without additional academic qualification. Already, many unemployed persons feel that there are difficulties to progress in life through the process of vocational education and training in Nigeria. Thus, the structural life through the process of vocational education and training be re-examined for upward development to the professional level.

Occupational Issues

Whereas there is a high expectation that vocational education and training shall provide employment opportunities, the programmes have not met the expectations of the Nigerian society. Thus, the impact is not very much felt by unemployed persons. Secondly, it is also difficult to assess whether or not the products of vocational education and training are really self-employed? Thus, we see that much is still desired in the occupational aspects of the programme.

Re-Training Issues

Retraining is an organised educational arrangement for knowledge, as skills require regular updates through institutional re-cycled training in form of refresher courses. This usually takes the form of seminars, workshops or short in-service courses. The need for re-structuring of re-training programme for the self-employed or the employed in various occupations is very relevant. Be that as it may, the re-training programmes have equally suffered in Nigeria to the point that the Nigerian educational system is being accused as the primary factor in contributing to the problems of unemployment. This is more, particularly as the school system is dominated by liberally oriented programmes that produce graduates with primarily theoretical knowledge instead of practical skills. The curriculum of the 6-3-3-4 system with vocational component was expected to have addressed this problem but is not doing so. And without the thorough examination, the country has jumped into another system, 9-3-4 (the Universal Basic Education). It is hoped that the anomalies inherent in the previous programmes should not revisit the UBE system.

The Polytechnics Issues

The Polytechnics are meant to provide technical knowledge and skills necessary for agriculture, industrial, commercial and economic development in Nigeria in order to reduce the dominance of liberal arts. It is also meant to give training and impact the necessary skills for the production of technicians, technologists and other skilled personnel who shall be enterprising and self-reliant. It is also to provide full-time and part-time courses of instruction and training in engineering, other technologies, applied sciences, business and management that would lead to the production of trained manpower. Again, as the case of other programmes that we have analysed, the Polytechnic education strengthens the vocational education and training to make it unemployed-friendly, and result oriented. This and similar thought provoking issues forms the crux of next Section of this paper.