Training Needs of Vocational Forestry Staff in Ogun State Nigeria

Abstract

Forests contribute in different forms to national and economic growths. Nigeria suffers the second largest net loss in forest reserve with 4.0 million hectares cleared annually. There is also inadequate training based on need assessment, and forestry personnel lack opportunities to update their knowledge. These concerns gave rise to this study with specific objectives to level of knowledge and level of skills of vocational staff in forestry activities. Data were collected using a simple random sampling technique in the selection of 50% of vocational staff totaling 143 respondents. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were used to analyze data. Majority of forestry vocational staff were between ages 41-50 years. Majority of vocational staff were school certificate holders and all staff considered themselves to be forest stakeholders. Thirty two percent of vocational staff attended Hammer procedure course. Vocational staff perceived their knowledge level and skill level as medium and that they needed little or no training in most of the area of needs. In conclusion, the study has shown that vocational staff in the study area needs to improve their knowledge, skills in forestry activities to meet up with the contemporary challenges.