Work Skills Needed by Senior Secondary School Graduates in Banana Production Enterprises for Job Security in Enugu State.

Abstract

The study focused on the work-skills needed by senior secondary school graduates in banana production enterprise for job security. The study was carried out in Enugu State, Nigeria using a descriptive survey research method. Three research questions and three null hypothesis guided the study to achieve the purpose of the study. The null hypothesis was tested at probability of 0.05 level of significance and appropriate degree of freedom. The population of the study consisted of 380 respondents. There was no sampling because the population was manageable. Structured questionnaire made up of 27 items was used for data collection. The instrument was validated by three experts and cronbach Alpha statistics was used to determine the internal consistency of the instrument and a coefficient of 0.78 was obtained. A total of 360 copies of questionnaires were distributed and returned. The data was analyzed using weighted mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions and analysis of variance were used to test the null hypothesis. The findings of the study are that secondary school graduates need work-skills such as choosing a suitable site that is flat with dense vegetation cover, choosing an area with abundant rainfall, clearing the land, marking out the land and dig holes of 60cm x 60cm for planting sucker, apply organic manure inside the holes one month before planting the sucker, collect healthy suckers from existing banana plot etc. The null hypotheses tested showed that there were no significant different between the mean responses of the respondents. Based on these findings it was recommended that government should establish skill acquisition centers in various locations for training youths on banana production, schools should lay much emphasis on practical agriculture which leads to skill acquisition by the students instead of teaching only theory in classroom.