Abstract:Technical vocational education and training (TVET) refers to a deliberate intervention to bring about learning which would make people more relevant and productive in designated areas of economic and technological activities. In order to meet the demand of the 21 st century workplace for skilled manpower and also to produce individuals that will be equipped with saleable skills for employment and self-reliant. If this must be achieved, TVET educational institutions must collaborate with the industry towards bridging the skill gap. This paper therefore examines best practices in TVET school-workplace collaboration: bridging the skill gap to meet manpower needs of the 21 st century workplace. This paper discusses concept of workplace training in TVET, concept of workplace-school collaboration, need for workplace-school collaboration in TVET, best practices to workplace-school collaboration: bridging the gap to meet the manpower needs of the 21 st century workplace.

Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) faces huge demands globally due to the high level of unemployment and the quest for technological development, industrialization and economic growth. For TVET to achieve its objectives of enabling leaners to catch up with the ever-changing living standard in a fast growing technological world and creating jobs for sustainable living, it must be strengthened through public-private partnerships (PPP) because government cannot singlehandedly shoulder this enormous task. It is with this understanding that this paper examined the need for PPP in TVET, strategic issues for TVET in Africa, reforms in TVET, PPP models for skill development and ways of revamping TVET through PPP. The paper suggests that PPPs should be encouraged. Sharing of tools and equipment between TVET institutions and industries—aimed at ensuring that learners are abreast with developments in the world of work—is also recommended.

The need to inculcate generic skills into graduates to meet the demands of the ever dynamic workplace has been of concern to stakeholders in education and the world of work. This concept of a global competitiveness, and generic skills were reviewed and discussed. This paper also examined the importance of generic skills; and factors influencing generic skills development among graduates were highlighted. This factors calls for different approaches and shift in pedagogy in developing generic skills for global competitiveness which include: change in instructional delivery, from the traditional method of instruction to cooperative learning model. It also involves integration and contextualized learning, creating world class spaces for learning, enhanced utilization of technology and inclusive learning and teaching environment for producing global workers in building technology.

The call for continuous creation of industrial and technological workforce cannot be overlooked, in view of the fact that it will boost the sustainable industrial and technological development of any nation. A vital programme that can bring into being requisite workforce for sustainable industrial and technological development is Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET). To this end, this study investigated the strategies for sprouting sustainable industrial and technological workforce through TVET in Nigeria using the descriptive survey research design. The study was guided with two research questions and two hypotheses. The sample was made up of 300 respondents comprising of 154 TVET Lecturers from Universities and 146 TVET industry-based workers in South-South Geopolitical Zone of Nigeria, who were selected using simple random and convenience sampling techniques respectively. The instrument used for data collection was a 69-item questionnaire which was validated by three experts. The reliability of the instrument was determined using Cronbach Alpha and a reliability coefficient of .86 was obtained. Mean and standard deviations statistics were used to answer the research questions, whereas t-test statistic was used to test the null hypotheses at .05 level of significance. The findings of this study revealed that TVET programmes had some policy-related challenges; and TVET institutions-workplace collaboration is a possible strategy for sprouting sustainable industrial and technological workforce in Nigeria. Thus, among others, it was recommended that firm TVET policy document be set-up by government and all stakeholders to appropriately synchronize TVET programmes towards sprouting sustainable industrial and technological workforce in Nigeria.

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