21ST CENTURY SKILLS AND EMPLOYABILITY OF TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION STUDENTS IN FEDERAL COLLEGE OF EDUCATION (TECHNICAL), AKOKA, LAGOS

Abstract

The study found out the influence of 21st Century skills on employability of Technical and Vocational Education (TVE) students. Among others, one of the purposes of Technical and Vocational Education in Nigeria is to train and improve necessary skills leading to production of craftsmen, technical and other skilled personnel who will be enterprising and selfreliant. Hence, investigating how 21st century skills has helped the employability of TVE students is important. Survey research design was adopted for the study. Multistage procedure was adopted to sample 136 respondents. Self-developed questionnaire titled “Questionnaire on 21st Century and Employability of Technical and Vocational Education Students” which yielded reliability coefficient of r = 0.78 was used for data collection. Findings revealed that innovation skill has the highest acquisition level among Technical and Vocational Education Students (mean = 3.44) while marketing skill has the lowest acquisition level (mean = 2.91). Skills acquired during training has influence on employability of Technical and Vocational students to a large extent (weighted mean = 3.17). Innovation skill (? = 0.006, P < 0.05); human relation skill (? = 0.437, P < 0.05); time management skill (? = 0.160, P < 0.05); professional (? = 0.370, P < 0.05); and ICT skills (? = 0. 159, P < 0.05) have significant influence on employability of Technical and Vocational Education students. It was concluded that coping strategy skill, financial management skill and marketing skill were not significant to employability of Technical and Vocational Education students. The study recommended the need to incorporate coping strategy, financial management and marketing skills in the curriculum of Technical and Vocational Education. Also, it was recommended that students should in addition to what might have been acquired in the four walls of classroom build up a very good interpersonal relationship with people around them.