INFLUENCE OF WORK-BASED LEARNING ON OTM STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN POLYTECHNICS

Abstract

Many students are unable to demonstrate the necessary skills in their academic disciplines despite participating in some aspects of work-based learning, such as Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES), teaching practice, and internship programmes, which results in a discrepancy between the outputs of higher institutions of learning. To address these challenges, there is therefore the need for a well-planned and executed work-based learning system that can begin to address these shortcomings. One research question and hypothesis guided the study. The study adopted a mixed-method research approach. The population of the study was 512 Higher National Diploma (HND) students in Office Technology and Management in nine polytechnics in North-central, Nigeria. Census survey was the sampling technique adopted. However, for the qualitative aspect of the study, a purposive sampling technique was adopted in selecting from the studies population. A structured questionnaire titled “Influence of Work-Based Learning on OTM Students‟ Academic Performance Questionnaire†(IWBLOSAPSQ) was used to gather the quantitative data. In-depth one-on-one personal Interview was the instrument used to gather the qualitative data. Mean and standard deviation were used to analyze the data collected to answer the research questions. Hypotheses were tested using independent samples t-test.at 0.05 level of significance. The study revealed that Work-Based Learning positively influences OTM students‟ academic performance (mean = 3.36, SD = 0.80), there was a significant difference between the mean response scores of male and female respondents regarding the influence of Work-Based Learning on the academic performance of OTM students (t₅₁₀ = 19.37, P<0.05). Based on the findings of the study, it was concluded that Work-Based Learning can improve OTM Students‟ academic performance. It was recommended among others that; there is a need for curriculum planners to provide enough dose of work-based learning programmes in the curriculum to help improve students‟ academic performance.

 

Keywords: Work-Based Learning, Office Technology and Management, Academic Performance