Building a Skilled and Inclusive Society through Mechanical Technology Education for Employability amongst Youths in Rivers State

Abstract

This paper aimed at exploring the role of mechanical technology education in building a skilled and inclusive
society in Rivers State. It focused on the role of machining and foundry skills as tools for employability among
youths in Rivers State. Two research questions and two hypotheses were used in the study. Descriptive survey
design was adopted for the study. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data for the study. The instrument
was validated by three experts and the reliability of the instrument was established using test re-test process using
Pearson Product Moment Correlation to obtain a reliability coefficient of .83. the instrument was administered to
28 respondents from two universities in Rivers State. Collected data were analyzed using Mean, and Standard
Deviation, and the hypotheses were tested at .05 level of significance. The result of the analyses revealed that
acquiring machining and foundry skills are vital tools that will help in building a skilled and inclusive society in
Rivers State. In line with the findings, the following recommendations were made; collaborations should be
established between machining industries and institutions of learning on training youths on machining skills;
governments at all levels should invest in the training and retraining of youths in foundry; grants and soft loans
should be provided for youths who want to start up the foundry or machining enterprise; and massive awareness
should be carried out on the socio-economic potentials inherent in acquiring mechanical technology skills.