Co-operative Occupational Education: A Strategy for Preparing Nigerian Youths for Employment in Agricultural Occupations

Abstract

It has often been stated that fresh graduates of Nigerian tertiary institutions in vocational courses have little or no practical production skills to make them readily employable without further training. A lot of reasons have been attributed to this including inadequate and obsolete facilities for skill teaching and learning. This paper presents Cooperative Occupational Education (COE) as a strategy to overcome this problem and prepare Nigerian youths for employment in agricultural occupations. Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme which was introduced as a solution to the problem was froth with a lot of problems to the extent that the desired results are not achieved. This paper looked at the models of COE, justification for making COE an integral part of Agricultural Education Curriculum and the requirements for effectively employing COE in preparing Nigerian youths for employment in agricultural occupations. It recommended among others that there should be a thorough review of the agricultural curriculum by experts to adequately accommodate the work experience aspect, that vocationally competent teachers and occupationally experienced coordinators should be employed.

DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2013.v3n4p85