Vocational Colleges Curricula: A Comparative Study between Malaysia and Nigeria

The aims of Vocational Colleges (VCs) are to give training and impart necessary skills leading to the production of craftsmen who will be enterprising and self-reliant. Many developing countries face the problem of unemployment among graduates; this may not be far from curricula modules mismatching job requirements. The scenario of low participation of private sector in skills development of graduates exists in Nigeria as a result of which the needs of local industries is not met. The objective of this paper is to compare the curriculum framework, courses/subjects-matter, aims, modes of transaction, and evaluation strategies in VCs in Malaysia and Nigeria. The methodology used in this study involved gathering previous studies on comparative analysis in education through Google Scholar, Science Direct, and JSTOR. Related Procedia were also retrieved from Elsevier. Literatures show that students have to adapt with 21st century knowledge, skills, innovative practice and competence as key points to job creation and wealth generation. The findings of this paper show that the curriculum structures in VCs in Malaysia are more updated than in Nigeria. However, curricula in VCs in Malaysia and Nigeria still need some improvements in entrepreneurship skills. This is necessary for effective transmission of knowledge and skills from school to work environment in the 21st century

The Concept of Entrepreneurship

The chapter examined the concept of entrepreneurship in technical education; types of entrepreneurs such as craft-men, promoters and opportunists; profile of an entrepreneur like originality, hard-work drive, task result oriented, among others; relevance of entrepreneurship to technical education students or graduands such as creating necessary awareness and motivation to excel in students/graduands so as to promote self-reliance and self-employment which is an alternative to salary and wages; challenges in the implementation process of entrepreneurship in technical education, example conglomeration of contents like financial accounting, commerce, economics, among others. In summary, entrepreneurship has been viewed from the standpoints of the psychologist (behaviourist), the economist, and sociologist. Furthermore, the objective of the chapter is to provide literature synthesis on the concept of entrepreneurship. The methodology was meta-synthesis of 15 relevant studies obtained from conference proceedings, text books, and online data bases. Scope of the study included higher and secondary education which are selected as the focus groups of the study in order to encourage assimilation and implementation of entrepreneurship education curricula and development. Data acquired were quantified using descriptive statistics (percentages on bar chart). The result of the study signifies definitions, characteristics, and importance of entrepreneurship needed for improvement of knowledge in enterprise curricula aside from skills and competencies. Higher and Secondary education are selected as the focus groups of the study in order to encourage assimilation and implementation of entrepreneurship education curricula and development