TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE i
APPROVAL PAGE ii
CERTIFICATION iii
DEDICATION iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT v
TABLE OF CONTENTS vi
LIST OF TABLES ix
LIST OF FIGURES xi
ABSTRACT xii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1
Background of the Study 1
Statement of the Problem 8
Purpose of the Study 11
Significance of the Study 11
Research Questions 13
Hypotheses 13
Delimitation of the Study 14
CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 16
Conceptual Framework 16
Concept of Technical Work skills 19
Plastic Production 23
College of Education (Technical) 24
Technical Work-Skills Required in Plastic Production 25
Compounding 25
Moulding 32
Reinforcing 52
Joining 61
Machining 71
Decorating 80
Theoretical Framework 91
Theory of Need 91
Theory of Production 93
Review of Related Empirical Studies 96
Summary of Literature Review 101
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY 102
Design of the Study 102
Area of the Study 102
Population for the Study 103
Sample and Sampling Technique 103
Instrument for Data Collection 103
Validation of the Instrument 104
Reliability of the instrument 104
Method of Data Collection 105
Method of Data Analysis 105
CHAPTER FOUR: PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA 107
Research Question One 107
Research Question Two 109
Research Question Three 111
Research Question Four 113
Research Question Five 115
Research Question Six 118
Testing of Hypothesis 121
Findings of the Study 135
Discussion of Findings 145
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATION 154
Restatement of the Problem 154
Summary of the Procedure Used for the Study 156
Major Findings of the Study 157
Implications of the Study 158
Conclusion 159
Recommendation 160
Suggestions for Further Studies 160
REFERENCES 162
APPENDICES 175
Appendix A: Letter of Request for Validation 175
Appendix B: Letter of Request for Completion 176
Appendix C: Result of Reliability Test 184
Appendix
D: Result
of Data Analysis 186
Table LIST OF TABLES Page
1 Mean Ratings of the Responses of the Respondents on Technical Work-Skills Required by College of Education Graduates in Compounding of Raw Plastic Materials 107
2 Mean Ratings of the Responses of the Respondents on Technical Work-Skills Required by College of Education Graduates in Moulding Plastic Materials 109
3 Mean Ratings of the Responses of the Respondents on Technical Work-Skills Required by College of Education Graduates in Reinforcing Plastic Materials 111
4 Mean Ratings of the Responses of the Respondents on Technical Work-Skills Required by College of Education Graduates in Joining Plastic Products 113
5 Mean Ratings of the Responses of the Respondents on Technical Work-Skills Required by College of Education Graduates in Machining Plastic Products 115
6 Mean Ratings of the Responses of the Respondents on Technical Work-Skills Required by College of Education Graduates in Decorating Plastic Products 118
7 t-test Statistics of the Responses of Plastic Production Technicians and Lecturers on Technical Work-skills Required by College of Education Graduates in Compounding Plastic Materials 121
8 t-test Statistics of the Responses of Plastic Production Technicians and Lecturers on Technical Work-skills Required by College of Education Graduates in Moulding Plastic Materials 123
9 t-test Statistics of the Responses of Plastic Production Technicians and Lecturers on Technical Work-skills Required by College of Education Graduates in Reinforcing Plastic Products 125
10 t-test Statistics of the Responses of Plastic Production Technicians and Lecturers on Technical Work-skills Required by College of Education Graduates in Joining Plastic Products 127
11 t-test Statistics of the Responses of Plastic Production Technicians and Lecturers on Technical Work-skills Required by College of Education Graduates in Machining Plastic Products 130
12 t-test Statistics of the Responses of Plastic Production Technicians and Lecturers on Technical Work-skills Required by College of Education Graduates in Decorating Plastic Products 133
Figure LIST OF FIGURES Page
1 The Schema of the Conceptual Framework of the Study 90
2
Maslow’s
Pyramid of Human Needs 92
Abstract
The study was
carried out to identify technical
work skills required by College of Education (Technical) graduates for self
employment in plastic production industries in Rivers State while six research
questions were posed and answered by the study, six null hypotheses were
formulated and tested at p≤0.05 level of significance. The study adopted
descriptive survey research design and was carried out in Rivers State,
Nigeria. The population for the study consists104 respondents which include twenty eight (28) lecturers in
Technical Education and seventy six (76) technicians in the five plastic
industries in Rivers State. Due to manageable size of the population, the
entire 104 lecturers and technicians were involved. Therefore, there was no
sampling for the study. The instrument used for data collection is 157-item
structured questionnaire titled “Required Plastic Work-skill Questionnaire
RPWSQ”. The instrument was subjected to face-validation by three experts. The
validates’ suggestions and inputs were taken into consideration in developing
the final draft of the questionnaire that was used for data collection. To test
for internal consistency of the instrument, Cronbach alpha reliability
technique was employed, to obtain reliability coefficient of 0.84 for
compounding plastic material, 0.81 for moulding plastic, 0.76 for reinforcing
plastic, 0.83 for joining plastic, 0.69 for machining plastic products and 0.75
decorating plastic products. The overall reliability coefficient of 0.79 was
obtained for the entire instrument. The data for the study were collected by
the researcher with the help of four research assistants. Out of the 104 copies
of the questionnaire administered, 101 copies were duly completed and retrieved
representing 97% return rate. The data collected were analyzed using mean to
answer the research questions and t-test for testing the hypotheses at 0.05
level of significance. Based on the data collected and analysed, the study
identified 52 technical work-skill items very highly required and 105 technical
work-skill items highly required by college of education graduates in plastic
production for self employment in plastic industry in Rivers State. On the
hypotheses tested, the study found that there was no significant difference in
the mean ratings of the responses of lecturers and plastic technicians on the
technical work-skills required by technical education graduates for self
employment in plastic industry in Rivers State. Based on the findings of the
study, the study among others recommended that all the identified technical
work-skills be used for improving the existing curriculum of technical
programmes of Colleges of Education and Universities with technical education
programme in the country, and that all the identified technical work-skills in
plastic production be integrated into the programmes of skill acquisition
centres in the state to take care of skill needs of the vulnerable youths and
other groups with desire for salable skills for work in the area.
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
The quality of education and training given to youths depend greatly on the ability of the institution to adjust their educational course content to the changing skill requirement of the nation. According to Manyindo (1995) educational institutions such as Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education are expected to provide knowledge and training that satisfy the human resources demand of the nation.
College of Education according to Federal Government of Nigeria (2004) is one of the tertiary institutions that provide knowledge, skills and training to students for the production of teachers and skilled personnels who shall be enterprising and self-reliant. The goals of College of Education Technical as stated in the National Policy on Education (2004) include: to encourage further the spirit of enquiry and creativity in teachers, to provided teachers with the intellectual and professional background adequate for their assignment and make them adaptable to changing situations, to provide the technical knowledge and skills necessary for agricultural, industrial, commercial, economic, and educational development of Nigeria, to give training and impart the necessary skills for the production of technicians, technologists and other skilled personnel who shall be enterprising and self-reliant.
The National Policy on Education (2004), when further to state that at the Nigerian Certificate in Education (NCE) and degree levels, education programmes shall continue to be expanded to also cater for the requirements of technical, business and special education. It is on this statement, that the system of education made far reaching innovative changes for all level of education. These changes are in two broad areas as follows: widening of the curriculum to bring in more subjects that are relevant to the stated national objectives (Basic Technology is one of the subjects among others); and deepening the subject contents (Okeke, 1995).
Basic Technology is a prevocational subject which is supposed to provide students with a process orientation in production and consumption through experiences in producing and servicing industrial goods which plastic production is among. Other are metals, woods, ceramics, glasses and rubbers. The graduates of college of education technical are the technical teachers who are to inculcate the learning processes, involving technical work skills (practical oriented) to meet the objective of teaching Basic Technology in the Basic secondary schools according to Ivowi (1981) are to provide students with the technological literacy required for everyday living and to provide vocational/technical orientation for further development of employable skills and training in technology.
The ineffectiveness of the colleges of education graduates to identify the technical work skill required to produce plastic for self employment, has been attributed to the inability of the students to identify the raw material of plastic and its opportunity to create wealth. The graduates ability and knowledge of the required technical work skill in plastic production for self employment will help him or her select learning experiences capable of developing in the students, skills, abilities, understanding, habit, attitude and appreciation which they will need to meaningfully enter and progress in self employment in plastic production. Where the technical graduates lacks the technical work skill required for plastic production, the students are likely to become ill-equipped for self employment in plastic production. The technical work skills required by College of Education graduates in plastic production for self employment represent that existing gap between the teacher’s expected capability and their actual performance in the plastic production. This study is aimed at identifying the technical work skill required by College of Education Technical graduates for self employment in plastic production in Rivers State, Nigeria.
Self-employment is working for oneself as a freelance or the owner of a business rather than for an employer, Okeke (1995). In the absence or lack of teaching opportunity, graduates of College of Education with the required technical work skill will surely be self-employed like production of polyethylene bag and sachet water bag for his/her livelihood. College of Education Technical prepares the graduates for dual purposes, either as a teacher or as skilled personnel who shall be enterprising and self-reliant. It is on this bedrock that the researcher deems it fit to identify the technical work skills required for self-employment in plastic production for College of Education Technical graduates. Technical courses offered in College of Education Technical among others include building science and material technology which covers woods, metals, ceramics, glasses, rubbers and plastic production, according to the minimum standard of National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE, 2009).
Stephen (1996) said that, plastics are polymers. The simplest definition of a polymer is something made of many units. Think of a polymer as a chain. Each link of the chain is the basic unit that is usually made of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and/or silicon. To make the chain, many links or polymers are hooked or polymerized together. Polymers have been with us since the beginning of time. Natural polymers include such things as tar and shellac, as well as tree saps that produce amber and latex. These polymers were processed with heat and pressure into useful products like hair ornaments and adornments. Natural polymers began to be chemically modified during the 1 800s to produce many materials.
The most famous of these were vulcanized rubber, gun cotton and celluloid. The first truly synthetic polymer produced was Bakelite in 1909 and was soon followed by the first synthetic fiber, rayon, which was developed in 1911. Thompson, Swan, Moore, and vomSaal (2009), said that a plastic is any of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic solid that are moldable. A plastic is any organic material containing a synthetic high polymer as the major constituents; polymer being material of high molecular weight formed by joining together many (poly) small molecule that can be easily molded or shaped by mechanical or chemical action to give non crystalline substance that are solid at ordinary temperature (Jain, 2010). Plastics are material made up of long-chain molecules based on carbon and hydrogen. According to Katchy (2008), there are two types of plastic materials: thermoplastic materials and thermoset materials.
Thermoplastics as described by the author are plastics materials that do not undergo chemical change in their composition when heated and can be molded again and again while thermoset are plastics that undergoes chemical reaction that is irreversible. A wide variety of processing method are employed to convert raw polymer or raw plastic to finish or semi-finished products. These methods are extrusion, injection, thermoforming, rotational, compression, casting, transfer and blow methods (Martins and De Paoli, 2005). These moulding methods usually involve a combination of heating, flowing, shaping and cooling. Heating melts thermoplastic materials so that it can flow and while still under pressure it is forced through a die or a mould to produce the desired shape.
Thermoset material once formed or cured become infusible insoluble and rigid and cannot be softened again by heating. Therefore, curing and shaping proceed simultaneously in plastic production. Production centre on effort made by man to make something or object to satisfy human wants and needs. Abedi (2005) affirmed that production primarily involves manufacturing of goods or extraction of raw materials to make a product. In the view of Olaitan (1996), production is the process of changing or transforming input (raw material) into output (product). In the context of this study therefore, plastic production involves all technical efforts that deal with the combination of raw material (polymer) in form of powder, granules, pellet or chip and additive in various forms for making the final product (plastic) and being self-employed in plastic production.
Plastic production like any other industrial activities involves some set of tasks and technical work skills (Smith, 2007). Major tasks in plastic production according to Crawford (1998), include compounding, moulding, reinforcing, joining, machining and decorating of plastic products. These specific task areas in plastic production are performed with technical work skills for task to be completed.
Compounding of plastic is the first task encounter during plastic production. This is the process of selecting and incorporating additives with raw polymer (Scholz, 2007). Moulding is the second task for plastic production. Moulding comprises of variety of processing methods to convert compounded material to finished or semi-finished products (Potente and Becker, 1999). These methods include extrusion, injection, rotational and others. Reinforcing means the combination of two materials differing in composition that is, the plastic material as the matrix (base polymer) and reinforcement material such as glass, carbon, asbestoes or synthetic and natural fibres (Radenkov, Toplijska & Radenkov, 2000). Joining of plastics materials involves, plastics sheets, rods or preformed components are joined to similar or dissimilar materials to form or repair the finished product (Su & Lin, 2005). Machining is the further operations such as turning, drilling, sawing, threading, grinding, milling and planning done on a plastic work piece to get the finished product (Kobayashi, 2011). Decorating of plastic are done for various reasons such as identification, to aid product sale, aesthetic appeal and improved resistance to wear, scratching, chemical or atmospheric exposure. Decorating of plastic are forms of surface marking (Kalpakjian & Schmid, 2006).
These tasks are accomplished through technical work skills for operation. Technical work skill according to Okorie (2000) is a habit of acting, thinking and behaving in a specific activity in such a way that the process becomes natural to the individual through practice. In the view of Osinem and Nwoji (2005) technical work skill is the ability to perform an activity expertly. The authors further added that skill is a well established habit of doing things and involves the acquisition of performance capability through repetitive performance of an operation. Technical work skill as described by Hull (1991) is the habit of doing something well, especially skill gained through training or experience. Onuka (2003) stated that skill is the capacity, technique or ability to do something well. In the view of Osuala (2004), technical work skills are referred to the ability to apply knowledge and the use of know-how to complete tasks and solve problems. Technical work skills are usually acquired or learned, as opposed to abilities, which are often thought of as innate. Nkokelonye (2008) described skill as cognitive when it involves the use of logical intuitive and creative thinking and practical when it involves manual dexterity and the use of methods, materials, tools and instruments. Both the cognitive skill and practical skill constitute the technical work skills required by college of education graduates for paid job in plastic production on graduation.
Technical work skills according to Okorie (2000) are the essential skills that enable people to perform tasks required by their occupation and other activities of daily life. Dole (2009), stated that technical work-skills are basic skills, cognitive abilities and personal qualities which a worker need to possess in order to succeed in career jobs. In the view of Olaitan, Nwachukwu, Igbo, Onyemachi and Ekong (1999), technical workskills are practical activities which can help an individual to acquire saleable skills. The authors maintained that technical work-skills entail a total array of responsibilities within a job. Technical work skills are those technical knowledge and abilities required for effective performance of college of education graduate in plastic production for self-employment. The individual capable of impacting the skills in plastic production are the technical teachers or skilled personnel in plastic industries and technical teachers in college of education where plastic production is taught as major aspect of building Science and material Technology. It is on this background that the researcher deemed it necessary to determine technical work skills required by College of Education (Technical) graduates for self-employment in plastic production in Rivers state, Nigeria.
Statement of the Problem
