SKILL ACQUISITION PROGRAMMES AND YOUTH ECONOMIC ENGAGEMENT IN YENAGOA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA

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SKILL ACQUISITION PROGRAMMES AND YOUTH ECONOMIC ENGAGEMENT IN YENAGOA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study

Today’s workforce is comprised of a diverse group of individuals. White, non-Hispanic workers are still the largest segment of the labor force (81 percent); however, the Asian and Hispanic labor forces are growing at a rapid pace (Bureau of Labor Statistics, Winter 2009-10). The growth rate between 2008 and 2010 was projected to be 30 percent for Asians and 33 percent for Hispanics (Bureau of Labor Statistics, Winter 2009-10). These figures indicate that the future labor force will become more diverse.

While nothing replaces the value of experience and hands-on training in the job market, every worker has to start somewhere. According to Crosby and Moncarz (2006), data show that a post-secondary education makes entering the workforce easier for some jobs; however, a college degree is the only way to begin many careers. As the job market becomes increasingly competitive, education is the key to developing the necessary skills to compete for improved employment opportunities and higher wages. A post-secondary education culminating in a degree increases the number of job options and the amount of earnings available to those entering the job market. Liming and Wolf (2008) reported job earnings for a number of educational levels as follows: High school graduates – $595 per week, Associate’s degree average – $721 per week, and Bachelor’s degree – $962 per week. In 2009, not only were earnings higher with more education, unemployment rates were lower: Bachelor’s degree—5.2 percent unemployed, master’s degree—3.9 percent unemployed, or first professional degree—2.3 percent unemployed (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2010).

The projected growth rate for occupations requiring a college degree is 19 percent, compared to a 13 percent growth for all occupations (Crosby & Moncarz, 2006). With the increased number of job openings available to individuals with post-secondary education, high school graduates will have to make a decision to pursue more education, enter the full-time workforce, or work while pursuing a post-secondary education. High school graduates, who decide to pursue a post-secondary education, whether full-time or part-time, will have to make choices about the career options they will pursue and the skills they will need to obtain. These career decisions will influence what courses, beyond the required college classes, they choose to concentrate on in order to enhance employment opportunities.

Often, job applicant, students and employees do not realize the importance of possessing transferable skills, and they assume that mastery of skills within their discipline is enough to get that all-important, post-graduation position (Robinson & Garton, 2007). Still, according to many, people graduating from colleges and universities often lack the skills needed in the world of work. This lack of preparation may be the result of three factors including not listening to professors and advisors, lack of participation in class exercises, and an inability to transfer meaning from their experiences into choices that will impact their future.

On the other hand, do professors know the skills needed for today’s workplace? Are professors emphasizing the necessary skills in their classes? According to the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (2006) and American Management Association’s (AMA) 2010 survey, many employers believe that higher education is failing in its role to adequately develop needed skills in job applicant, students and employees. In higher education, professors can influence job applicant, students and employees by promoting the skills businesses are seeking in future employees and helping job applicant, students and employees achieve these skills through course activities. Professors can also influence the choices job applicant, students and employees make through advising relationships.

Stringer, Kerpelman, & Skorikov (2011) reported that according to Erik Erikson, an early psychosocial theorist, the primary developmental task of adolescence into early adulthood is to form an identity in different domains including career and relationships. Stringer and colleagues (2011) defined career identity as “the sense of self derived from one’s development of an occupational career and is an important component of one’s overall identity” (p. 158). To ultimately reach career identity, individuals’ experiences during early adulthood may impact their career formation. According to Savickas (2005), individuals’ experiences do matter. His theory of career construction through experiences involves individuals imposing meaning on past and present experiences and future goals that influence their work lives. Savickas’ theory served as a basis for this study as the researchers explored whether or not the perceptions of the job applicant, students and employees and the faculty members, probably formed from their experiences, mirrored the skills businesses were reporting as necessary for the workplace in the new century.

Like any wokforce, employment can be looked at from varying angles, particularly from the employee’s point of view, from the employers point of view and lastly from the point of view of the general public.

In discussing the profession with a employee one may tend to address his mind to the choice of employment as a career. This may be as a result of an individual’s particular interest to be a employee.

Career frustration may also be one of the reasons for going into any job especially if that particular individual think there was no other profession to which he is best suited. Although having embarked on it, the interest may follow. Of immense important is the influence of employment opportunities while draws and encourages candidates towards the profession, since practitioners have opportunity for frequent change of jobs for better remuneration.

A employee, in office is frequently making a lot of personal decisions in respect of her profession. The personality of the employee together with her academic ability play a lot in her advancement. It is not uncommon, therefore for people write average academic advancement to stay in a permanent employment with a particular firm or department and contended with any departmental promotion and advancement that her employer form time to time offers.

However, some employee use the profession as a stepping stone to get quick money because of the demands for good employees and correspondence good remuneration. These are the types that hop from firm to firm, department to department, having achieved their ambition to gather wealth and thereafter delve into business.

The brilliant, diligent and devoted employee is one who seeks advancement in relevant professional qualification that enhances her position as a employee some employees differentiate between the sexes of the boss. A male boss is preferred by some because of his masculine zeal, appreciative comments on the employee’s behaviors, work and devotion to duty. Some appreciate working with a female boos because of the ability of the female boss to appreciate feminine feelings and devotion to duties as well. When discussing with friends, some believed that employee ship as a profession is a respectable career and like others, the success of failure depends on the practitioner and that it is not a job for drop-out. Some parents do not mind their daughters pursing the course. But some believed that employment as a career for a girl is not good in that it limits the prospects of marriage bad that it is morally debased profession.

On the other hand, some people believed that secretarial profession more often comes as preference than as a last resort. In other words, they are of the view that no one would want to go into a job that is only servitude in nature. They feel that it is meant for those who cannot do well in other courses.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The job applicant problem is one of many names for a famous problem of the optimal stopping theory. The problem has been studied extensively in the fields of applied probability, statistics, and decision theory. It is also known as the marriage problem, the sultan’s dowry problem, the fussy suitor problem, the googol game, and the best choice problem.

The basic form of the problem is the following: imagine an administrator willing to hire the best job applicant out of n rankable applicants for a position. The applicants are interviewed one-by-one in random order. A decision about each particular applicant is to be taken immediately after the interview. Once rejected, an applicant cannot be recalled. During the interview, the administrator can rank the applicant among all applicants interviewed so far, but is unaware of the quality of yet unseen applicants. The question is about the optimal strategy (stopping rule) to maximize the probability of selecting the best applicant.

Objectives of the study

To understand the impact of skill acquisition programmes on youth economic engagement in Yenagoa local government area of Bayelsa state
To understand the relationship between of skill acquisition programmes and youth economic engagement