QUALITY OF ACADEMIC CURRICULUM AND EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS AMONG UNIVERSITY SCIENCE GRADUATES IN THE SOUTH-WEST, NIGERIA

Abstract

Employability entails a set of achievements to secure a job, while Employability Skills (ES) are innate potentials needed to function in a work place. Employability Skills (leadership, teamwork, oral communication, interpersonal and initiative) have been reported to be poor among university graduates. Previous studies on ES considered skills mismatch, assessment, impacting factors, career guidance but gave little attention to quality of academic curriculum (Instructional Materials¬ – IM, Physical Facilities – PF, Human Resources – HR, Methods of Teaching – MT, and Assessment Strategies – AS). This study, therefore, was carried out to investigate the relationships between IM, PF, HR, MT and AS with ES among science graduates of universities in the South-West, Nigeria.

The study was anchored to Quality Enhancement Model, while the mixed-method design was employed. The multi-stage sampling procedure was adopted. The universities in the south-west, Nigeria were stratified based on ownership (federal, state and private). Seven universities were randomly selected from the strata – Federal (University of Ibadan, Ibadan), State (Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba, Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti and Osun State University, Osogbo) and Private (Adeleke University, Ede, Caleb University, Imota and Wesley University, Ondo). All final year science students totaling 1259 and their lecturers (284) were enumerated. Employers of labour were randomly selected for the following sectors: Manufacturing and Construction (6), Agricultural and Forestry (3), Telecommunication (6), Health (3), Banking and Finance (5), Education (6) and Judiciary (6). The instruments used were Quality Academic Curriculum and Employability Skills Questionnaire for Lecturers (r=0.98), Students (r=0.80) and Employers (r=0.76). Key Informant Interviews were conducted with four employers of labour. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson’s product moment correlation, Multiple regression and t-test at 0.05 level of significance, while qualitative data were analysed thematically.

The participants’ age was 23.0 2.30 years, while 59.0% were males. Leadership (x ̅=3.36), self-confidence (x ̅=3.23), initiative (x ̅=3.15), interpersonal (x ̅=3.19), independence (x ̅=3.17) were high against the threshold of 2.50. Teamwork (x ̅=3.05) and information technology (x ̅=3.00) skills were fairly acquired, while instructional resources (x ̅=2.55) were fairly adequate. There were significant relationships between IM (r = 0.59), PF (r=0.68), HR (r=0.70), MT (r =0.54), AS (r = 0.70) and ES. The independent variables made a significant contribution to ES (Adj. R2=0.72) F(5,269) =118.30, accounted for 72.0% of its variance. The IM (β=0.20), PF (β=0.21), HR (β=0.03) and MT (β=0.50) made relative contributions to ES, while AS did not. Significant difference existed between skills acquired by students in public and private universities (t1257=2.05). The students from private universities (x ̅=66.61) acquired more skills than their counterparts in public universities (x ̅=57.13). Employers of labour embraced all the employability skills required for organisational enhancement.

Quality of academic curriculum influenced the employability skills among university science students in the South-West, Nigeria. Instructional resources and methods of teaching should be improved, while assessment strategies should be reviewed to enhance graduate employability skills.