Motivations to Teach: A Significance in Enhancing Hiring Measures of Pre-Service TVET Teachers

This study investigated the underlying factors that influence potential TVET teachers' decision to pursue a teaching career in order to recruit more teachers. The motivation of pre-service TVET graduates obtaining a postgraduate diploma in technical education was therefore investigated using the QUAN-QUAL approach to collect quantitative data via a researcher-created, self-administered questionnaire and qualitative data via written essays and narratives using the triangulation mixed method design. Participants were selected from two cohorts (N=78) of students enrolled in the various departments for the Postgraduate Diploma in Technical Education (PGDTE) program of the University of Nigeria. According to the quantitative analysis, excellent role models from previous teachers, the demanding nature of the job role, a willingness to impart relevant knowledge and skills, a willingness to assist financially disadvantaged students in gaining marketable job skills, and the country's presumed demand for TVET teachers were the primary motivators for pre-service teachers. The qualitative analysis found seven (7) themes, three of which were motivational: desire to assist students and community/sharing expertise; personal dream/calling/passion to teach; and the desire to financially aid students who are incapacitated. However, the gender aspect revealed that male and female pre-service TVET teachers showed significant differences in their altruistic and intrinsic impulses. Following that, the two sets of data were compared and investigated. The ramifications of the findings were then examined, as well as their significance in enhancing hiring measures through setting of standards for tech-voc education programs to improve on the status of TVET teachers to attract quality graduates of technical education programs who can teach as TVET teachers before and after completing their programs

Enhanced Optical Management in Organic Solar Cells by Virtue of Square-Lattice Triple Core-Shell Nanostructures

This research focuses on enhancing the optical efficacy of organic photovoltaic cells, specifically their optical absorbance and electrical parameters. The absorbance of photons in organic solar cells (OSCs) was studied by incorporating an optical space layer and triple core-shell square-lattice nanostructures. For better chemical and thermal stability, a dielectric-metal-dielectric nanoparticle can be replaced for embedded metallic nanoparticles in the absorption layer. The 3D (finite-difference time-domain) FDTD method was used to analyze the absorption and field distribution in OSCs using 3D model morphology. Firstly, an optimization of thickness of the optical spacer layer was analyzed and secondly, the impact of adding triple core-shell nanostructures at different levels of an OSC were studied. The photovoltaic properties such as short circuit current density, power conversion efficiency, fill factor, Voc were investigated. The proposed design has demonstrated an improvement of up to 80% in the absorption of light radiation in the photoactive region (donor or acceptor) of OSCs in the wavelength range of 400 nm to 900 nm when compared with that of nanostructures proposed at various layers of OSC