Abstract:
This study is aimed at identifying and determining the safety practice skill requirements of electrical electronics graduates of polytechnics for effective work place performance in manufacturing industries in Imo State, Nigeria. Survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study was 241 respondents comprised of all the 132 industrial based electrical supervisors (IBES) working in the 76 operational manufacturing industries in Imo State and 109 electrical workers(Technologist, Technician, Craftsmen) with Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN). There was no sampling because of the smallness of the number. The questionnaire used for data collections was 80 items structured into four sections. The instrument was subjected to face validation by three experts, and was further pilot tested on 40 respondents (20 IBES) and 20 PHCN electrical workers), who were not part of the population for the study. Cronbach Alpha formula was used to establish the internal consistency of the instrument. The overall reliability coefficient for the instrument was calculated to be 0.87. Four research questions and four null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. Mean and standard deviation were used to analyse the data for answering the research questions while t-test statistic was employed to test the hypotheses at significance level of 0.05. Based on the data collected, it was found that safety practice skills in electrical installation, electrical equipment maintenance, electrical wiring maintenance and in using electrical hand tools and machines were needed for effective workplace performance in manufacturing industries. Consequently, it was recommended that, the curriculum planners should incorporate these needed safety practice skills into the present curriculum used in the polytechnics so that the graduates will be well equipped to work successfully in the manufacturing industries.
