Generic Skills and the Employability of Electrical Installation Students in Technical Colleges of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

Abstract

Generic skills are key competencies that can be used across a large number of different occupations and they provide a platform for the development of employability skills needed by young people and adults. This study investigated the influence of generic skills on the employability of Electrical Installation and maintenance students in Technical Colleges of Akwa Ibom State. It employed the survey research design, 3 research questions and 2 null hypotheses guided the study. A total of 60 Electrical Installation students drawn from a population of 80 students were randomly stratified to form the sample. The researchers developed instrument tagged "electrical Installation employability indices" (EIEI) was used for data collection. The instrument was face and content validated and the reliability index was established at .89 using the test retest method. The statistical tools used for the study were mean and Analyysis of Variance (ANOVA). The research findings reveal that Electrical Installation students possess essential generic skills and it was concluded that the generic skills have an influence on their employability. It was recommended that lecturers emphasize the importance of generic skills and they should also encourage group discussions in classrooms.