RECOMMENDED CHANGES IN STUDENTS' INDUSTRIAL WORK EXPERIENCE SCHEME (SIWES) GEARED TOWARDS DECREASE IN UNEMPLOYMENT RATE OF BUSINESS EDUCATION GRADUATES IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The high rate of unemployment of vocational education graduates in Nigeria was one of the major reasons for the introduction of Stunents' Industrial Works Experience Scheme (SIWES). Based on the high rate of unemployment, this study was undertaken to recommend the needed changes to be made in SIWES to facilitate decrease in unemployment rate of business education graduates in Nigeria. Two research questions were answered by the study, while two null hypotheses were formulated and tested. The study adopted survey research design. The population for the study was 320 respondents made up of 64 Business education lecturers, 20 staff of Industrial Training Fund (ITF) and 236 final year students. The instrument for data collection was a structured 32-item questionnaire which was validated by 3 experts. The reliability of the instrument was established using Cronbach alpha which gave a reliability coefficient of 0.87. The data collected were analyzed using mean to answer the research questions, while t-test statistic and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used for testing the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. It was found among others, that re-tooling business education model offices, promulgation of a 'no rejection' of students on training policy, and ITF regulation of student's posting to iindustries of relevance, would facilitate decrease in unemployment rate of business education graduates in Nigeria. The study concludes that SIWES be modified to achieve business education graduates employability and, or self employment objective. It was recommended among others, that ITF should present a new order of studentss' placement to industries of relevance and ensuring that government policy statement regarding the establishment of SIWES is effectively implemented.