Vocational and Technical Education in Nigeria and the Attainment of National Educational Goals : What Is and What Ought to Be

This paper examined the present status of Vocational and Technical Education (VTE) in Nigeria with particular emphasis on the attainment of national educational goals. Some VTE related goals as enshrined in the National Policy on Education include (i) introduction in to world of technology, (ii) acquiring technical skills, (iii) exposing students to career awareness and (iv) enabling youths to have an intelligent understanding of the increasing complexity of technology. While the paper has the conviction that there is adequate policy backing to VTE programmes in Nigeria, it posited that the issue with VTE is not that of inadequacy of curriculum content but that there are gaps in implementation and funding. Consequently, the poor implementation and funding leads to production of graduates that are ill prepared to face the entrepreneurial expectations of the profession. It is recommended that there should be removal of deregulation on VTE imported items, adequate funding of UBE programmes which invariably favours VTE and introduction of one year industrial attachment for VTE students from tertiary institutions in Nigeria before they are awarded certificates