BUSINESS EDUCATION PROGRAMME AND CAPACITY BUILDING FOR STUDENTS THROUGH EFFECTIVE SCHOOL–INDUSTRY PARTNERSHIP IN KANO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This research was conducted to ascertain the influence of business education programme in building students' capacity through effective school-industry partnerships in Kano State, Nigeria. The descriptive survey research design was used by the researchers. The study's population comprised 122 business education lecturers in two Federal Colleges of Education in Kano State, Nigeria. The whole population was considered for the study without a sample because it was not large and a structured four-point rating scale questionnaire was utilised for the collection of data. The research questions were answered with the aid of Mean and standard deviation, while the null hypotheses were tested with z-test at 0.05 level of significance. The Findings of the study revealed that some of the available business education programmes for school-industry partnership are effective for students' capacity building while some are ineffective and there are numerous constraints to effective school-industry partnership for capacity building. Furthermore, there were no significant differences in the opinions of the lecturers in FCE(T), Bichi and those in FCE, Kano in terms of the effectiveness of the available programmes for building the capacity of the students through school-industry partnership and the constraints to effective collaboration between the industry and the school for students' capacity building. In line with the findings, the study concluded that the practical experiences acquired by students of business education from SIWES and teaching practice were not adequate to make them function effectively in the real work situation. As a way forward, the study suggested that the industry and the academic institutions should effectively collaborate to improve students' practical skills that are needed by employers of labour, schools should create liaison offices to close the communication gap between them and the industry, government should encourage partnership between the school and the industry and the Association of business educators of Nigeria (ABEN) should constantly be organising seminars, workshops and conferences for business education lecturers and the industry in order to make them know the benefits of such partnerships.