Appropriateness and adequacy of teaching and learning resources and students’ industrial attachment in public colleges of technical and vocational education in Zambia.
Date
2020
Authors
Mulenga, Innocent Mutale
Chileshe, Edward King
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
East African Journal of Education and Social Sciences
Abstract
Zambia has the largest youthful population of below 15 and 18 years which constitute 45.5%
and 52.5% of the total population respectively. This is expected to rise by 2030. However, this huge
number of young persons, which should be a great resource for economic development, is mostly
unemployed (UNESCO, 2016). For many years now the government of the Republic of Zambia has been
running and introducing more Vocational Education and Training Institutions as a way of reducing
unemployment amongst young people. Regardless of all these efforts, most youths in Zambia who have
graduated from such institutions remain unemployed (TEVETA, 2015). In this study, the researchers
investigated the appropriateness and adequacy of institution’s teaching and learning resources that the
students were exposed to during trainings and how the industrial attachments were organized by the
Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions. The mixed method research approach
was used to analyze this phenomenon. Six college principals were purposively sampled while stratified
and simple random sampling were used to sample sixty lecturers, ten from each of the six colleges.
Findings showed that TVET institutions in Zambia were plagued with a number of challenges ranging
from lack of appropriate and modern workshop equipment, lack of reading material and ineffective
industrial attachment. Researchers recommend that the Ministry of Higher Education and college
managements should provide a conducive learning environment in these institutions if graduates were
to acquire the required technical competencies.
Description
Keywords
Industrial practicum. , Teaching attachment. , Teaching and learning resources. , Vocational education and training.