Skills Improvement of Teachers in Technical Colleges for Sustainable National Development in Nigeria: Training and Retraining a Universal Remedy

Abstract

The current study examined training and retraining for skills improvement of teachers in technical colleges for sustainable national development in Nigeria. Three research questions and three hypotheses were raised for the study. A descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised 273 technical teachers in 9 approved technical colleges in Lagos state. A sample of 90 technical teachers was used for the study. A 20-item structured questionnaire constructed by the researchers was used for data collection. Reliability was tested using Cronbach Alpha and a value of 0.87 was obtained. The data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics of the mean and standard deviation to answer research questions. Independent t-test was used to analyse three hypotheses at 0.05 levels of significances. The findings revealed that teachers perceive the availability of training and retraining programmes and sustainable national development can be achieved through training and retraining of teachers as training and retraining programmes can improve teachers’ skills of duties performance. The researchers therefore concluded and recommends that more efforts should be made by relevant bodies such government, higher institutions, professional bodies and among others to put in place more training and retraining programmes for teachers of technical colleges and they should also be encouraged to attend and participate in such programmes to improve their skills in order enable them to function effectively for sustainable national development to be achieved.