Staff Development Initiatives in Nigerian TVET System: The Mentoring and Collaborative Approaches

Abstract

The study was conducted in the two public universities (University of Nigeria, Nsukka – UNN and Enugu State University of Science and Technology - ESUT) in Enugu State, Nigeria. The two institutions offer Vocational and Technical Education programmes. The population comprised 173 academic staff. There was no sampling because the population is manageable. The study employed questionnaire instrument in gathering data from respondents. The questionnaire responses were graded according to a four-point scale mean of 2.50 and above answered the research questions. The reliability of the questionnaire instrument was determined using the Cronbach alpha formula for internal consistency, and reliability coefficient of 0.87 was obtained. Furthermore, t-test statistic was used to test the two null hypotheses formulated for the study at 0.05 level of significance. Findings shows that educators  prefer informal mentoring to formal mentoring; Incentives should be attached to mentoring programmes; collaborate with educators outside my school; TVET staff seek for whom to collaborate with on their own without the faculty support and joining online communities will greatly improve my research skills as TVET educator. Therefore, recommendations that Government should attach incentives to mentoring programmes; Educators should prefer to collaborate with educators outside my school and TVET staff should seek for whom to collaborate with on their own without the faculty support were made.