Employability Skill Development of Automobile Technology Students in a Work-Integrated Learning Environment: Barriers and Best Practices

Abstract

In today’s modern world, industries must compete to survive in the global market. Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) is widely considered instrumental in equipping new graduates with the required employability skills to function effectively in the work environment. Three research questions and hypotheses guided the study. The study population was 20 automobile technology education lecturers and 20 automobile engineers drawn through a simple random sampling technique. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire. Mean and standard deviation (SD) were used to analyze the research questions. Independent sample t-tests were used to analyze the hypotheses, which determined the no relationship at (P ˂ .05) significance level. Findings from the study revealed that teamwork, practical, and problem-solving skills are among the employability skills needed to be practiced by the students in a WIL environment. The study recommends, among others, that the lecturers/teachers should adopt appropriate teaching methods when teaching these students; more specifically, project-based learning, business simulation games, and self-directed learning strategies, among others, should be used. The curriculum should be reviewed occasionally to align with the current needs of the workplace and society.