Improving Acquisition of Maintenance Skills in Agricultural Equipment and Implement Mechanics Work Workshop in Technical Colleges for Job Security in Enugu State.

Abstract

The main objectives of the study was to determine the strategies for improving acquisition of maintenance skills in Agricultural Equipment and Implement Mechanics work trade in technical colleges in EnuguState. The study guided by three research questions in line with the purpose of the study. Three null hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significant. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The population for the study was 69, which comprised four school administrators, ten trade teachers and 55 final year students of eight accredited government technical colleges in EnuguState. There was no stapling due to the manageable size of the population. The instrument for the data collection was a 28 item questionnaire developed by the researcher after an extensive literature review. The instrument was structured in five point rating scale and was facevalidated by three experts. The reliability of the instrument was determined using Cronbach Alpha and the internal consistency yielded 0.87 index coefficient. Mean with standard deviation was used to answer the research questions based on the data collected from the study, while t-test analysis was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Based on the data collected, findings and recommendations were made among which were; that teachers of Agric equipment & implements mechanics work trade in technical colleges should encourage practical exercise to develop skills into the learners, Agric equipment & implements mechanics work trade teachers should adopt the strategies based on the findings of this study to enhance teaching practical maintenance skills in technical Colleges; Agric equipment & implements mechanics work trade teachers should encourage project method of teaching and guided practice to promote active learning of needed skills and school administratos partnership with resource persons outside the school environment.