The Potential of Vocational and Technical Education in Addressing Nigeria’s Contemporary Socio-Economic and Political Challenges

This paper argues that although Vocational and Technical Education (VTE) has the potential to address most of the current Economic and Socio-political challenges that are currently facing Nigeria today, the weak industrial and commercial structure of the Economy depressed the demand for vocational technical skills. On the supply side, the huge funding requirements for VTE Schools have undermined the quality and quantity of VTE providers. The paper develops a theoretical model and, drawing from the literature, establishes the interconnectedness of the seemingly diverse economic and socio-political issues. It argues lower effective demand for VTE and low quality supply of VTE are responsible for its ineffective implementation in Nigeria. A successful implementation of the VTE programme, therefore, requires a sustained demand for the technical vocational skills from a sustained economic and industrial growth, in addition to increased private and public sector