THE IMPACT OF VOCATIONAL AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION ON THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF KANO STATE, NIGERIA

The main Purpose of this study was to determine the impact of vocational and technical education on the economic development of Kano State, Nigeria. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. Two research questions were raised to guide the study; two hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The population of the study was one hundred and forty-four (144) people consisting of ninety-three (93) teachers and one hundred and fifty-one (151) VTE graduates of Technical Colleges. The instrument used for data collection was structured questionnaire which was validated by two experts. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research question and Z-test was used to test the null hypotheses. This study found out that VTE programs in Kano state are not available enough to accommodate and train those that need and those that want it. The study also discovered that the contents of the available VTE programs in Kano state are only slightly relevant to the demand of labour market. The study recommends that the federal government and Kano state government should jointly establish more technical colleges in Kano state (especially in rural areas) to accommodate, train and produce more skilled human capital that can be employed by industries and SMEs or establish their own enterprise thereby contributing the economic development. The study also recommends that the available VTE programs should be updated to meet the job market demand. Collaboration and link should be established between technical colleges and industries to have synergy among themselves. Kano state government should also come up with internship programs for VTE graduates to prepare them for job market.