Industrial Collaborations for Curriculum Reforms in Business Education in Rivers State Universities

Absence of relevant curriculum, results in skills mismatch between industrial requirement and actual skills possessed by business graduates and the end point is continued unemployment. Industries in Rivers State seem to be left out in curriculum planning. From 42 Lecturers, the study investigates collaborations between Business education programs and industries in Rivers State for curriculum reforms. Specifically, the existing curriculum gaps in Business Education curriculum that require industrial collaborations for improvement and strategies employed to ensure involvement of industries, are being probed. Instrument for data collection was a checklist and questionnaire titled” Industrial collaborations for curriculum reforms Questionnaire”. Mean, simple percentage and standard deviation were used to answer two research questions. Findings revealed that there are gaps in business education curriculum which industrial collaborations could remedy and these include; gap in current industrial skill requirements, and technology usage. The study also found that very minimal strategies were employed to ensure industrial involvement in curriculum reforms. Based on the findings of this study, it was concluded that there are existing gaps in Business Education curriculum and minimal strategies are employed to ensure the involvement of Industries in curriculum reforms and development of Business Education programs, other strategies like field trips, consultancy services and collaborative research are yet to be adequately employed. Among others, recommendations were made that Business Education curriculum planners in Rivers State should employ more strategies to ensure industrial involvement in curriculum reforms such as consultancies and collaborative research.