Empowering business education students for decent work and productive employment: Nigeria example

Abstract

The prevailing occurrences of social, economic and environmental challenges have created enormous responsibility for the education sector towards achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs 2030) in developing nations. Therefore, this study was carried out to examine the extent students of business education have been empowered for decent work and productive employment for all through proper awareness and innovative instructional strategies. The study adopts a descriptive survey design and formulated relevant research questions and hypotheses. A sample of 159 final-year students of Business Education at federal and state colleges of education in Lagos, Nigeria, were selected from the population using random, purposive and stratified sampling techniques. The research instrument used was a structured questionnaire. The internal consistency of the research instrument using Cronbach’s alpha correlation coefficient yielded an average index of 0.76. The statistical tools used for analysing the data for research questions and hypotheses are mean and t-test, respectively, at a 0.05 level of significance. The study found that innovative instructional strategies for decent work and productive employment for all were not practically employed. In addition, students lacked proper orientation about the SDGs 2030. Review of curriculum content and the instructional strategies are parts of the recommendations. Keywords: Business education students, instructional strategies, decent work, productive employment, orientation.