To find jobs, create new jobs or encourage graduates to excel in their new career paths, ensuring that they possess the right skills that employers require plays an essential role. Students who do not possess vocational skills in addition to technical skills may likely find themselves struggling to either find jobs or create new jobs. Such graduates may likely lose self-efficacy beliefs in their ability to either find or create jobs and may be unsure about the next steps to take. When such graduates are employed via social networks of potential employers, they may be further trained by their employers thereby creating room for loss of money and time. Thus, my students keyed into my research interests during their research projects in the Department of Vocational & Technical Education, Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike, Ikwo, Nigeria. Below are few of the research studies:
Work Placement Learning and Business Education Students’ Employability Skills Development: The Role of Learning Self-Efficacy.
Student Name: Ogbule Peculiar Chiamaka
Concept Note:
In this student project, the researcher examined the effect of work placement learning on Business Education students’ employability skills development, mediated by learning self-efficacy. The researcher relies on the assumptions of the Human Capital Theory (Schultz, 1961; Becker, 1993), which postulates that investing in training such as work placement learning leads to an increased lifetime earnings, enhances access to better jobs and reduces time individuals may spend in the unemployment market. Given the relevance of the Human Capital Theory to the current study, it served as the theoretical framework for the current study. This study has presented the summary of the findings on how WPL can foster business education graduates’ employability skills. The study found positive effects of work placement learning on the employability skills via learning self-efficacy.
Effect of Work Placement Learning on Business Education Students’ Career-Related Behaviours: The Role of Supervisor Support.
Student’s name: Akosa Stephen.
Concept Note:
In this study, the researcher examined how work placement learning influences students’ career-related behaviours (i.e., Job search intentions, career planning, career commitment and career reconsideration), moderated by faculty supervisor support. The student draws on the social cognitive career theory (SCCT) (Lent et al., 1994) which views career actions as individuals’ efforts directed toward achieving their career goals. The researcher relied upon the SCCT framework to test the proposed hypotheses. Findings showed positive links between work placement learning and the career-related behaviours (Job search intentions, career planning, career commitment and career reconsideration) thereby suggesting the need to promote work placement learning, particularly, in developing world.
Applying Conservation of Resources Theory to Business Education Students’ Psychological Capital and Work Placement Learning Engagement.
Student’s name: Chijindu Chizaram Favour.
Concept Note:
In this research, the researcher applied the conservation of resources (COR) theory (Hobfoll, 1989) to examine how psychological capital influence students’ learning outcomes in work placement learning, mediated by intrinsic motivation. Drawing upon Luthans et al.’s (2007, p.3) conceptualization of psychological capital (PsyCap), is ‘‘an individual’s positive psychological state of development characterized by: (1) having confidence (self-efficacy) to take on and put in the necessary effort to succeed at challenging tasks; (2) making a positive attribution (optimism) about succeeding now and in the future; (3) persevering towards goals, and when necessary, redirecting paths to goals (hope) in order to succeed; and (4) when beset by problems and adversity, sustaining and bouncing back and even beyond (resiliency) to attain success’’. Thus, the COR guided this study.
Applying Social Cognitive Career Theory to Work Placement Supervision and Business Education Students’ Preparatory Job Search Behaviours
Student’s Name: Chikelueze Chikaodili Blessing
Concept Note
In this research, the researcher applied the Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) (Lent et al., 1994) to examine how effective work placement supervision might influence students’ job search preparatory Behaviours, moderated by Proactivity. The researcher conceptualized preparatory job search behaviours as; resume preparation, practice in completing job application forms, attending job fairs, networking with potential career experts, following local job leads and interview preparation. The study found positive effect of effective placement supervision and the constructs of preparatory job search behaviours.
Effect of Career Adaptability on Business Education Students` Career Development in Work Placement Learning
Student’s Name: Cynthia C. Okwudili
Concept Note:
In this study, the researcher determined the effects of the constructs of career adaptability on students’ career development in work placement learning, moderating by proactivity. The study built on the career construction theory to examine these relationships. Following the findings of the study, the researcher concluded that building students’ career adaptability, particularly, career concern and curiosity are important in work placement learning. Thus, it made case for improving the students’ adaptability during work placement learning to ensure that they persist in their learning tasks to achieve quality learning outcomes.
Applying Expectancy-Value Theory to Work Placement Supervisor Support and Business Education Students’ Learning Goals.
Student’s Name: Okwubunka GoodLuck Chidiadi
This study draw upon the expectancy value theory to examine the effect of work placement learning on students’ learning goal orientation, mediated by expectancy for success and tasks value. The study found a significant positive relationship between supervisor support and mastery goal orientation, performance goal orientation and task value. Also, students with higher tasks value showed higher increase in mastery goal orientation and performance goal orientation. However, the results showed that tasks value mediated the relationship between supervisor support and mastery goal orientation, while expectancy for success mediated the relationship between supervisor support and performance goal orientation.
