ABSTRACT

The main thrust of this study is on the effect of Dreyfus Model Training of career guidance on Soap Making and Bakery Skills acquisition of apprentices for employment in Niger State. The model is divided into five stages: Novice, Advance Beginner, Competence, Proficient and Expert. Eight research questions and eight null hypotheses tested at 0.05 level of significant guided this work. The research design adopted for the study was the quasi experimental non equivalent group in which a total of 168 apprentices were purposively sampled from four skills acquisition centres in Minna. The two instruments used for collection of data from the respondents were Bakery Skills Acquisition Test (BSAT) and Soap Making Skills Acquisition Test (SMSAT), each instrument consist of 20 items segmented into five stages. The instrument was validated by three experts in Guidance and Counselling, Science Education and Counselling Psychology out of which two are from University of Nigeria, Nsukka and one from Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University Lapai, Niger State-Nigeria. The reliability of the instrument in terms of internal consistency was based on a trial test conducted at Skills Acquisition Section of Women Day College Minna with a sample size of 60 respondents, using the Cronbach Alpha Statistics with an index of 0.81 for the BSAT instrument and 0.80 for the SMSAT instrument. Four skills acquisitions centres were purposively sampled for both experimental group and the control group. The experimental group for soap making skills is located at Chanchaga Skills Acquisition Centre Minna while the control group is located at Saint Clement Skills Acquisition Centre Minna. Whereas, the experimental group for bakery skills is located at Talba Youths Skills Acquisition Centre Minna with the control group at Women Day Centre Minna. All the four skills acquisition centres were pretested and post tested on the two instruments after treatment by the researcher on Dreyfus Model Training. The data collected were analyzed using mean, standard deviation and ANCOVA. The findings show that there was significant difference between the mean achievement scores of apprentices after training on Dreyfus Model in soap making and those without the training. Similarly, there was significance difference between the mean achievement scores of apprentices after training on Dreyfus Model in bakery skills and those without the training. Finally, there were no significant interaction effect scores differences after training on Dreyfus Model in soap making skills and bakery skills of apprentices. These findings were discussed alongside with their implications and recommendations. One recommendation is for mass production of text books and learning materials for all levels and forms of education. This will open a window of new opportunity to teachers and instructors of skills acquisition centres to employ the Dreyfus Model training which has inherent advantage because of its systematic approach to problem solving. Limitations encountered during the study and suggestions for further studies highlighted.