ABSTRACT
This study was designed to examine Perception of Career Opportunities in Adult Education for Adult and Non-formal Education graduates in Benin City, Edo State, using Oredo and Egor Local Government Areas as case study. To achieve this purpose, the following research questions were raised in order to find solution to the problem of the study: What are respondents’ perception on Adult and Non-formal Education? How is the level of perception of respondents on career opportunities in Adult Education for Adult and Non-formal Education graduates? How are respondents’ perceptions of the impact of career opportunities in Adult Education on Adult and Non-formal Education graduates? What are the perceptions of respondents on literacy and vocational skills adult educational career opportunity for Adult and Non-formal Education graduates coupled with government’s support? What are the perception of respondents on the utilization of the career opportunities in Adult Education by the graduates of Adult and Non-formal Education? The study adopted the descriptive survey research design. One hundred subjects were randomly selected from the population as the sample for the study. The instruments used for this study were a set of questionnaire and oral interview methods.
Data collected for answering the research questions were analyzed using frequency count and simple percentages. Findings from the survey revealed that majority of the respondents in Oredo and Egor Local Government Areas of Edo State have positive perception of the career opportunities in Adult Education for Adult and Non-formal Education graduates. It was also discovered that graduates of Adult and Non-formal Education utilize the career opportunities in Adult and Non-formal Education although on ora interview, respondents maintained that quite a number of these graduates lack the necessary technological tools that could make them focus on their career opportunities. It was recommended that the graduates of Adult and Non-formal Education should be supported with the necessary technological tools by the government in order for them to fully appreciate the career opportunities in Adult Education.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
The utmost aim of education is to produce a well-rounded individual that would be useful to himself and the society at large having been found worthy in learning and in character as well as a change in behavior. Adult education as a field of study promotes this aim of education as it provides the adult learners with the necessary material, human, cultural and economic skills in order for them to be useful to themselves and the society at large. Omolewa (1981) quoted the Director-General of UNESCO who holds the view that ‘… it is not the children of today who hold the present destiny of Africa in their hands, it is the adults. So it is only by establishing effective communication with the adult population, by helping them to adjust to a rapidly challenging world, that an immediate impact can be made on the urgent problems of society and essential progress be brought about.’
In 1959 the Ashby Commission was set up to determine Nigeria’s human resource needs vis-à -vis the country’s secondary and higher levels of education for a period of twenty years, 1960-1980 (Nwadiani, 2011). Thirty-four years down the ladder, Nigeria as a nation still remains one of the developing countries of the world due to social, economic and political factors like unemployment, overpopulation, illiteracy, starvation, corruption, gender inequality, etc which have become great impediments to the overall achievement of the aim of education in general and adult education in particular which is seen in most of the Third World to serve another purpose. J. T. Okedara, et al, (2001), note that whether narrowly conceived as adult literacy (functional or not), the extension of elementary schooling to the masses, or whether more widely as incorporating extension is based on nationally identified needs rather than an individual wants. Since these social, economic and political factors still militate against the aim of education in developing countries like Nigeria, adult education graduates ought to master the content of adult education as put forward by UNESCO in The Nairobi Conference of November, 1976 which adopted a broad categorization of adult education which it defined as the entire body of organized educational processes whatever the content, level and method, whether formal or otherwise, whether they prolong or replace initial education in schools, colleges and universities as well as in apprenticeship, whereby persons regarded as adults by the society to which they belong develop their abilities, enrich their knowledge, improve their technical or professional qualifications, or turn them in a new direction and bring about changes in their attitudes or behavior in the two-fold perspective of full personal development and participation in balanced and independent social economic and cultural development (Omolewa, 1981). Given the above definition, it is clear that adult education is an organized educational process which equips the adult learners with the necessary apprenticeship skills, develop their abilities, enrich their knowledge, improve their technical or professional qualifications as well as turn them in a new direction in order to bring about changes in their attitudes. Therefore, it can be perceived that there are career opportunities for adult education graduates considering the fact that every society especially developing societies like Nigeria requires an organized educational processes that would impact meaningfully on the learners in order to be self-reliant. In a book entitle ‘Educational administration’ four major categories of pressure for change or adaptation in the education system can be identified; viz: political, professional, demographic and changes in related services. Adult education gainfully enables or equips adult learners in all these nationally identified needs in order for them to free their minds from factors or agents militating against the growth of a nation.
These nationally identified needs cut across all areas in adult education as a field of study. Areas such as adult basic education, community education and organizing, adult and family literacy, professional and continuing education, distance education, human resource development, workplace learning, informal education, religious education, social advocacy and action, women education, population education, extension education, etc. Adult education graduates could liaise with agencies like educational planners, policymakers, and consultants in varied contexts as private business, government and public agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), non-profit organizations, churches and religious organizations, international organizations as well as community-based groups or initiatives in order to harness these career opportunities in the field of adult education. How are the graduates in this field of study utilizing these various avenues in harnessing these various career opportunities in adult education since most of these graduates could be limited by perception like internal and external factors as to how these career opportunities may contribute to their overall well-being. Super (1993), stated that both internal (personal attributes) and external (environmental and social context) factors within the transition stages will influence individuals’ career choices and decisions as well as their career/vocational behaviours. It becomes worrisome to see that these graduates who have undergone training or completed a course in adult education still find it difficult to pick up careers in this field, hence the need to take a look at the perception of career opportunities in adult education whether due to internal or external factors because according to Lent, Brown and Hackett (2002), outcome expectations (whether educational outcome or otherwise) are described as an individual’s belief concerning the consequence or outcome from completing a specific action. Gore and Leuwerke (2000), are of the view that outcome expectations, in response to vocational behavior, help to determine career goals and interests.
