ABSTRACT

This research assessed the effects of the vocational skills acquisition initiative of the National Directorate of employment on wellbeing of the resettled beneficiaries. The study was carried out in Akwa Thom State. The study adopted a simple random sampling to elicit information from 172 resettled beneficiaries through a well structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results showed that 40% of the beneficiaries aged 26-30 years were mostly female (54.7%) and married (73.3%). Most respondents (54.7%) were school certificate holders while household sizes of 3-4 persons were dominant (43.02%). The greatest impact of the programme on beneficiaries' wellbeing was their ability to provide food for themselves and others (17.4%; X =1.65). The least effect was on the beneficiaries access to the National Health Insurance Scheme (2.9%; X =1.25). The most patronized trade by trainees was fashion designing (25.6%) while the least were auto electrical installation and shoe repairs (2.3% each). Analysis showed that 60.5% of beneficiaries were satisfied with the programme. Dissatisfiction with the programme was in the areas of ill-equipped training centres (3 8.2%), programme implementation (26.47%) and level of assistance to trainees (3 5.29%). On effectiveness of the programme, 40.0% of beneficiaries observed irregular visit by NDE monitoring officials while 40.7% agreed that there was a great impact of the training on their lives, 34.3% accepted little impact and 25.0% claimed there was no impact on their wellbeing. The highest income of trainees while on training was 2501--3001 (16.3%) and the least was l50l—N200l (59.3%) while the highest post training income was 25001- N30,000 (14.0%) and the least was N5,001-NIO,000 (39.0%). The study revealed that about 48.7% successfully completed their training (male=36%; female=64.0%) while 44.1% were retained by their trainees on a salaried basis. Chi-squarc results showed that there was significant difference between effectiveness and ineffectiveness of NDE programme among resettled beneficiaries. Correlation analysis (Pearson Product) also revealed a positive relationship between the effect of vocational skill acquisition initiative on the wellbeing of the respondent and the respondents' perception of the impact of NDE programme (r = 0.752, P< 0.05). The beneficiaries perception on the performance of the programme was positive and highest on ability of the training to sustain them through life (106: X =3.32) and negative and highest on implementation in terms of style of teaching during training (36; X =1.92). 83.7% of the respondents agreed that the organization has achieved its mandate. Since the major constraint to the programme was inadequate manpower, and poor collaboration with agencies with complementary functions, the study recommended improved funding and increased in manpower base for the organization.