Vocation and technical education — a key to improving Nigeria’s development (part 3)

An entrepreneur is a person who makes plans for a business or a piece of work and gets it going. Anyanwuocha (2001) observes that the entrepreneur is the chief co-ordinator, controller and organiser of the production process. The entrepreneur combines other factors of production (land, capital and others) in such a way as to obtain maximum production of goods and services at minimum costs.

In order to effectively enhance occupational skills in the present day, entrepreneurs need also to acquire information and communication technology knowledge and skills. Mkpozi (1996) observed that a country that is developing and manufacturing its own goods either from Hi-Tech or small/medium scale indus

tries using indigenous skills and exports some of those goods to other countries is usually economically stable.

This could be better achieved through the acquisition of entrepreneurial and occupational skills in technology and vocational education.

Individuals with technical and vocational skills and good knowledge of ICT are characterized by self-reliance, self-employment and fit properly into today’s technical, entrepreneurial and business world.
The entrepreneur should therefore possess technical skills, ideas and management skills which are necessary for the success of the venture.

One of such skills is information and communication technology which is characterized by employee empowerment and involves the making of unskilled and semiskilled workers to be skilful and functional in today’s world of work. It also involves the development of task-oriented team of workers who no longer depend on individual managers for all their decisions to achieve targets.

Technical process re-engineering are also required to redesign technical work processes, jobs, organisational structure, management system, and also in process designs in manufacturing industries.

These components of ICT have great implications for the enhancement of entrepreneurship education in technology and vocational education field of work. According to Azuka, Nwosu, Kanu and Agomuo (2006), classroom behaviour must align with ICT-driven environment which is constantly shaping and re-shaping the work place and consequently, what is learnt and how learning takes place.

There are various numbers of opportunities for technology and vocational education graduates with entrepreneurship skills in ICT-driven technical and vocational education environment.

These opportunities exist in various forms for enhancing entrepreneurship skills. Nwabuona (2004) views entrepreneurship education as the identification of the general characteristics of entrepreneurs and how potential entrepreneurs can be trained in management techniques needed for effective performance of persons for long time survival of an organisation after the acquisition of occupational skills.

Therefore, the roles of technology and vocational education in enhancement of entrepreneurship skills is to identify and equip graduates with critical wealth of skills, technical knowledge, and a good measure of self-confidence using information and communication technology competence.

The entrepreneur should therefore possess entrepreneurial and management skills which are necessary for the success of the venture. Ogalanya in Nwabuona (2004) identified entrepreneurial skills to include managerial or administrative skills, job/technical skills, human relations skills, innovative/enterprising skills, competitive skills, communication skills, conceptual/planning skills, supervisory/guidance skills, according skills, investigation/problem solving skills. Ohakwe (2003) observed entrepreneurial skills as banking transactions, internet concepts and skills, internet websites knowledge and skills.

An adequate knowledge of these concepts, skills and internet competences certainly is an asset to technology and vocational education graduates in today’s ICT driven world.

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