Work-Based Skills Need for Employability of Mechanical Engineering Students of Polytechnics in Rivers State

The study determined the work-based skills need for employment of mechanical engineering student of polytechnics in Rivers State. Specifically, the study sought to determine mechanical engineering and generic skill needs for employment of polytechnic students in Rivers State. Two research questions were posed and two null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study at 5% level of significance. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study consisted of all the thirty-two (32) respondents (twenty-one (21) lecturers and eleven (11) technologists) of mechanical engineering lecturers and technologists in Rivers State owned polytechnics in Rivers State which are Ken Saro Wiwa Polytechnic Bori and Captain Elechi Amadi Polytechnic Rumuola Port Harcourt Rivers State. No sample was taken since the population of the study was of manageable size. The instrument for data collection was a researcher’s designed questionnaire which comprised 20-items and was designed on a 5- point likert scale of Strongly Agree (SA), Agree, (A), Undecided (U), Disagree (D) and Strongly Disagree (SD) having ordinal values of 5,4,3,2 and 1 respectively. Three experts validated the instrument while Cronbach Alpha method was used to determine the reliability of the instrument which yielded a coefficient of 0.87 after a test-retest which lasted for 15 days. Mean and standard deviation was used to answer the research question while t-test was used to test the hypotheses. The criterions mean score was taking at 3.50. That means, “reject” the null hypotheses where t-cal value was equal or greater then table value, but otherwise, “accept” the null hypotheses. The findings revealed that mechanical engineering skills and generic skills such as identified below are needed for employment of mechanical engineering students of polytechnic in Rivers State. The study therefore recommended that government should provide adequate mechanical engineering training facilities for the acquisition of mechanical engineering skills in polytechnics in Rivers State.