Career readiness of final year agriculture students in tertiary institutions in South West region of Nigeria

Abstract

Readiness to transit from school to work could arise from training at school. This study assessed the career readiness of final year agriculture students of tertiary institutions in the southwestern Nigeria. Multistage sampling procedure was used to select 240 students from universities (180) and polytechnics (60). Data were collected using structured questionnaire and analyzed with percentages, means and t-test. Results show that a higher percentage (51.1%) of final year students of university and polytechnic (71.7%) had a mean age of 24.5 years. Their perception of sufficiency of agriculture technical content for career readiness was about average for both universities and polytechnics respectively: theory (= 2.85; 2.72), practical (= 2.67; 2.78) and entrepreneurship (=2.53; 2.55). However, skills in Information Technology (IT), modern equipment and facilities usage and interactional/social skills were deficient for both institution types. Results further revealed that respondents in the universities showed the readiness to further their education/academics (= 2.24) while polytechnic showed more readiness to engage in agricultural enterprises (= 2.10). Most severe constraint to agriculture career readiness for the university students is inadequate government funding = 2.77) and for their counterpart low job prospects = 2.88). There was significant difference between university and polytechnics with respect to career readiness (t=-2.51; p=0.01) in which polytechnic students demonstrated more readiness. The plethora of constraints that militated against career readiness could be addressed through adequate funding to ensure more practical skills for university students.