Integration factors of green skills into building construction trade programme in Nigeria

Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) remains a vital tool for skilling young individuals both in and out of school. However, it appears that there has been a lack of research especially in the building construction sector with respect to green buildings in Nigeria. The main purpose of this research paper is to identify factors should be included in the greening of building construction trade curriculum of technical colleges in north western Nigeria with a view to improving teaching and learning green skills for sustainable development. In this study, simple random sampling was used to select 15 building construction teachers in the north western Nigerian technical colleges. Data for this study were collected using qualitative approach (that is interview). Respondents were requested to answer the interview questions based on the topic under study. The factors (data) identified from the perception of the respondents were collected and analysed by qualitative means based on their level of consideration with regards to improving teaching and learning green skills for sustainable development. In doing so, the data were analysed by transcription, coding, content analysis and thematic with the aid of Nvivo statistical software. Findings indicated that the three main factors that could be included in the integration of green skills into the curriculum of building construction trade include environmental, economic and social factors. Specifically, these factors were disintegrated into climate change, global warming, greenhouse gas emission, economic instability, health and safety issues related to buildings, waste and energy in buildings. This research forms the initial investigation of a more in-depth study of the green skills integration into the Nigerian education curriculum, which aims to achieving environmental, economic and social sustainability

Greening the curricular of building construction trade for environmental sustainability through fostering waste minimisation skills

Waste minimisation skills became the subject of this research because construction industry generates lots of waste during and after construction. Therefore, the purpose of this quantitative study was to develop a conceptual model for integrating waste minimisation skills in Building Construction Trade (BCT) at technical colleges in Nigeria. This paper is aimed at exploring the negative effects of building construction wastes to environmental sustainability and identifying, using questionnaire through experts in building construction the important areas of waste minimisation skills suitable to be embedded into the curricular of building construction trade. Analysis of the identified important areas via Descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation), Exploratory Factor analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used to analyse the data which will immensely contribute to the body of knowledge. The findings for this study include ability to manage waste, including custom diversion plans tailored to the project opportunities; consider that the selection and use of recyclable materials and products to minimise waste; and recycle waste generated from the process of intentional dismantling all or portions of a building. Using the results of the analysis, the research formulates a waste minimisation skills integration model, while Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to validate the modified model and viable suggestions were made to the government for the adoption and practical implementation of the model by fostering the identified areas of the waste minimisation skills elements into the curriculum of building construction trade at technical colleges in Nigeria with the aimed for the environmental sustainability

A qualitative study of school-to-work transition experience of new culinary graduates towards a sustainable growth in the profession

School-to-work transition experience during the early years of employment is important because it shapes the new graduates’ perceptions towards their sustainable growth in the profession. Youth employment has always been the primary concerns in the culinary industry as previous studies reported that many of the new graduates failed to sustain in the industry. Early attrition among young culinary workers is one of the upsetting employment issues. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the transition experience during the early years of employment among new graduates who work in hotels and up-scale restaurants. Purposive sampling was conducted among young culinary workers with industrial working experience of less than 5 years. Majority of the interview participants shared their experiences related to the challenges they encountered when they started their first job. The findings also revealed the needs for supports and the received supports during the early employment. Interview participants shared how these received supports impacted their professional development. For the new graduates to sustain and develop in the industry, the abilities in coping with the challenges during their early employment are important. These were the first indication of their school-to-work transition success. Findings of the study are useful in the development of framework of effective and successful school-to-work transition

Administrative stressors and Islamic coping strategies among Muslim primary principals in Malaysia: a mixed method study

Principals are school leaders who experienced stress while leading their schools towards excellence. However, principals stress experiences are always ignored and least studied. This mixed-methods study investigates primary principals’ stress experiences and their Islamic coping strategies used in incapacitating the stress experiences. A total of 216 Muslim primary principals across different gender, types of schools and years of experiences as school leaders responded to the administrative stress and the Islamic coping strategies items. In addition, seven primary principals were purposefully selected and interviewed in exploring their reasons of using Islamic coping strategies for their relieving process. Results discovered that primary principals experienced fairly stress level and they perceived managing students’ academic achievement was the most stressor followed by managing teachers’ capabilities. Although findings revealed that no significant differences in terms primary principals’ demographics; male primary principals, and experienced between 6 and 10 years and positioned in schools with least students (SLS) category have slightly higher level of stress. In terms of Islamic coping strategies used by primary principals, saying dhua to Allah, performing dhikir and reciting the Yassen are selected coping approaches employed in handling their stress. From interviews, primary principals also revealed that they used Islamic religious approaches as part of meaningful activities not just to overcoming their stress but also as part of religious approaches in remembering Allah, thinking back their past mistakes as part of the Muhasabah process. Therefore, we believed that religious approaches should be taken into consideration in principals’ training as it provides peaceful and treatment in managing principals’ stress issue