Abstract
The need to reduce the high rate of unemployment among OTM graduates necessitated this study. The study focused on strategies adopted by OTM departments in polytechnics in North East, Nigeria to strengthen their programme to meet students' employability skills needed for changing world of work. Two research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted survey research design. The population of the study was 628 OTM lecturers in 12 public (Federal and State) polytechnics in North East, Nigeria. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 246 OTM lecturers for the study. Self-developed questionnaire with 17 items which was face validated using the opinions of three experts two came from the field of Business Education and one expert from Measurement and Evaluation Unit in the Department of Education Foundation, both in the Faculty of Education, Gombe State university was used for data collection. The reliability of the instrument was determined using pilot testing and data calculated using Cronbach Alpha formula yielded correlation values of .78 and .88 for clusters B1 to B2 respectively with an overall index of 0.83 obtained. Mean, standard deviation and t-test were used for data analysis. Findings showed that OTM departments in polytechnics in North East, Nigeria to a low extent collaborate with industries as well as adopted innovative funding strategies to strengthen OTM programme to meet students' employability skills needed for changing world of work. Ownership of institution was not a significant factor in their mean responses on the extent OTM-industry collaboration, and innovative funding strategies are adopted to strengthen OTM programme to meet students' employability skills needed for changing world of work. Based on the findings of the study, the researcher concluded that; OTM department-industry collaboration as well as innovative funding strategies are not adequately adopted by OTM departments to enhance students' employability skills. It was recommended among others that; management of OTM programmes in polytechnics in North East, Nigeria should improve their collaboration/synergy with industries to help in the provision of modern teaching facilities/equipment. This will help to improve the quality of training offered to students to enable them acquire employability skills needed for changing world of work.
Keywords: Office Technology and Management (OTM), Employability Skills, Work Innovative Strategies
Publication Date: 2023-09-09