Abstract:
The study was carried out to determine strategies that can be used to bridge the gap between theory and practice in skill acquisition by Carpentry and Joinery students in Benue State Technical Colleges. The population of the study was 70, this comprised 9 principals, 24 Carpentry and Joinery teachers, 32 industrial supervisors and 3 staffs of Industrial Training Fund Makurdi. Six research questions and six hypotheses were generated and served as guide to the study. A structured questionnaire consisted of 149 items statement generated on skills, instructional strategies, tools/equipment, consumable and facilities, Carpentry and Joinery production units in schools, motivation and organization of Students Industrial Work Experiences Scheme/apprenticeship training programme required to bridge the gap between theory and practice in skill acquisition. Mean and standard deviation were applied to answer the research questions while analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test the hypotheses of no significance difference at 0.05 level of significance. The result indicated that total of 144 items were required to reposition Technical College in the state to be able to bridge the gap between theory and practice in skill acquisition in Carpentry and Joinery. However, five items were rejected on the ground of non relevance to the bridging of gap between theory and practice in skill acquisition. Based on the findings, implications of the study were highlighted. Subsequently, conclusion, recommendation and suggestions for further studies were made.
