IMPACT OF TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA (EDUCATION PROJECT TOPICS AND MATERIALS)
CHAPTER ONE
- INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Art is a vocation that can be learned both at the formal tertiary institution and at the informal workshop center. Vocational and Technical Education within the context of this definition can therefore be conceptualized as an alternative training program that is designed mostly to improve the employability of participants and also to empower them with work readiness skills. The aim of such training program has been to support participants’ inclusion into labor force. Based on this fact, it can be reiterated that the need to link vocational and technical education program to economic opportunities within the context of livelihood sustenance is highly imperative in academic scholarship.. The vocational and technical education opportunities being articulated in this study can be divided into three broad categories: (1) training offered in private institutions under the entrepreneurship programmes (2) training established by governments through formal tertiary institutions such as: the Polytechnics and Colleges of Education and (3) training sponsored by non-governmental organizations (NGOs), private individuals and/or religious organizationsthe art workshop experiments organized in Nigeria at Oye-Ekiti, Osogbo, Ile-Ife, Lagos and Agbarah-Otor fall under the last category.
The driving force for every nation is her educational goals that are geared towards development. This is because one cannot expect to achieve what was not planned for. This implies that education is an in view. This was clearly reflected in the early Spartans, Athenians and Romans education.For instance, the Spartans education in the 7 th BC focused on physical training as the nation was interested in producing men that are battle ready. The Athenians in reaction to the Spartans educational goal emphasized on condition and cultural re- orientation or developed their educational goal to include manual training that encouraged development of cognition and skills as well as physical training in the art of war (NOUN, 2006). The National Policy on Education in Nigeria clearly defines the nation’s educational goals and shows at a glance the area of emphasis. For instance, the policy documents, two main philosophy and fife national objectives (FRN, 2004).
