ABSTRACT
The study was carried out to determine the skill improvement needs of self-employed technical college motor vehicle mechanic graduates in Plateau State. A survey research design was used for the study. The population for the study was 66 self-employed technical college motor vehicle mechanic graduates, 15 supervisors from automobile industries. A structured questionnaire was used as an instrument for data collection. Five research questions and five null hypotheses were formulated. Cronbach alpha method was used to determine the reliability coefficient in the instrument which yielded 0.92. Weighted mean and improvement needed index (INN) was used to analyse the data for answering the research questions while t-test statistics was used to test the hypotheses of no significant difference at 0.05 level of significance. It was found that selfemployed technical college motor vehicle mechanic graduates in plateau state need improvement in 14 skills to carryout engine maintenance, 5 skills for maintenance of steering system, 2 skills for servicing and maintenance of braking system; 6 skills for repairs and maintenance of autoelectricity and 8 skills needed for transmission reconditioning work. The study also found that: (1) there was no significant difference between the mean responses of self-employed technical college motor vehicle mechanic graduates and supervisors in automobile companies on skill improvement needs of the self employed graduates for engine maintenance (ii) there was no significant difference between the mean responses of self-employed technical college motor vehicle mechanic graduates and supervisors in automobile companies on skill improvement needs of the self-employed graduates for servicing and maintenance of steering system (iii) there was no significant difference between the mean responses of self-employed technical college auto-mechanic graduates in Plateau state and supervisors in automobile companies for servicing and maintenance of braking system (iv) there was no significant difference between the mean responses of self employed technical college auto-mechanic graduates in Plateau state and supervisors in automobile companies on skill improvement needs of the self-employed graduates for the repairs of auto-electricity (v) there was no significant difference between the mean responses of the self-employed technical college auto-mechanic graduates in plateau state and supervisors in automobile companies on skill improvement needs of the self-employed graduates for the repairs and maintenance of transmission reconditioning work. It was recommended that emphasis should be made on these deficiencies in the curriculum by curriculum planners to take care of the technological changes that are taking place in the automobile industry globally; it was also recommended that government and members of the society should equip the technical colleges with modern tools, machines, equipment and qualified personnel for effective teaching and learning in the study area.
