Developing Soft Skills through Project-Based Learning in Technical and Vocational Institutions
Gimba Dogara1, Muhammad Sukri Bin Saud2, Yusri Bin Kamin3, Mohd Zolkifli bin Abd Hamid4, Mohd Safarin bin Nordin5
1Gimba Dogara, Lecturer, Department of Technical Education, Kaduna State College of Education, Gidan Waya, Kafanchan.
2Sukri Muhammad Bin Saud, Professor, Department of Technical and Engineering Education, Faculty of Education, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, MALAYSIA.
3Yusri bin Kamin, Associate Professor, Department of Technical and Engineering Education, Faculty of Education, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, MALAYSIA.
4Mohd Zolkifli bin Abd Hamid, B.Sc (HONS) (Food Science & Nutrition), PGDip. Ed (Biology & Science) (UTM), M.Ed (Technical & Vocational Education) (UTM), Ph.D (Technical & Vocational Education) (UTM).
5Mohd Safarin bin Nordin, Dip/Mech. Eng (UTM), B.Tech. Ed (Hons) (UTM), M.Ed (Technical & Vocational Education) (UTM), Ph.D (Technical & Vocational Education) (UTM),
Manuscript received on September 22, 2019. | Revised Manuscript received on October 20, 2019. | Manuscript published on October 30, 2019. | PP: 2842-2847 | Volume-9 Issue-1, October 2019 | Retrieval Number: A9803109119/2019©BEIESP | DOI: 10.35940/ijeat.A9803.109119
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© The Authors. Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Abstract: Soft skills have become critical in the preparation of employable graduates. The education system must, therefore, aim to ensure quality training for the production of employable graduates. Soft skills are personal abilities that one retains and can adequately be nurtured through active participation of students in the teaching and learning process. It is validated by researchers that the prevalent employability skills deficiencies have been one of the main causes of unemployment globally. Consequently, soft skills have all the potentials for equipping graduates with adequate employability skills. Thus, this study investigated the effect of project-based learning on the development of soft skills among technical students at technical and vocational colleges, Kaduna State, Nigeria Smart PLS software was used to test the developed model. As the sample size for this study was relatively small, the researchers were not certain to have normally distributed data. Subsequently, Smart PLS is appropriate for non-normally distributed data and therefore, it was used to simultaneously evaluate the measurement model, structural models and to confirm the convergent and discriminant validity of the measure. The study revealed that collaborative skills construct have a significant positive relationship with soft skills of technical students at technical and vocational colleges, while communication skills, initiative skills, and problem-solving skills have a positive insignificant relationship with soft skills of technical students at technical and vocational colleges. The findings of this study suggest that the curriculum of technical programs in Nigerian technical colleges need to be reviewed and geared more towards activity-based teaching and learning to enable technical students effectively develop soft skills for employment.
Keywords: Project-Based Learning, Soft Skills, Smart PLS, Technical and Vocational Education.