ABSTRACT

This study examined the Perceived Influence of Students’ Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) on Business Education Students’ Skill Acquisition in Tertiary Institutions in Abia State, Nigeria. The research had four specific objectives, four research questions and four hypotheses tested at 0.05 level of significance. The descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. A sample of 124 respondents was randomly drawn from a population of 180 (comprising of 22 Business Education lecturers and 158 Business Education students in 300 level in Abia State College of Education (Technical), Arochukwu and Abia State University, Uturu) who have participated in the Students’ Industrial Work Experience Scheme. A 50-item structured questionnaire titled Students Industrial Work Experience and Skill Acquisition Questionnaire (SIWE&SAQ) was the instrument used for data collection, vetted by three experts in MOUAU and had a Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient of 0.74 which showed the reliability of the instrument. Mean was used in answering the research questions, standard deviation was used to determine the closeness and homogeneity of mean responses while a paired sampled t-test was used to test the hypotheses. The findings revealed that SIWES exerted a positive influence on the acquisition of marketing and technical skills among Business Education students. Conversely, the study identifies a low extent of influence by SIWES on entrepreneurial and ICT skills acquisition. Furthermore, there is no significant difference between the mean ratings of lecturers and students on the influence of SIWES on the acquisition of technical skills among Business Education students in tertiary institutions in Abia State. The study recommended that all relevant stakeholders should collaborate to strengthen the Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) in order to fully realize its objectives. Additionally, the government should allocate adequate financial resources to all levels and aspects of education to enhance the effective implementation of educational programs, particularly SIWES