Vocational Competencies Required by Youths in Management of Beekeeping for Job creation in North East Zone of Benue State, Nigeria

The study investigated vocational competencies required by youth in management of Beekeeping for job creation in North East Zone of Benue State. Three objectives and one hypothesis were formulated for the study. The study adopted survey research design and was conducted in North East Zone of Benue State. The population for the study was 178 respondents and the entire population was used for the study, hence no sampling. A 53 items structured questionnaire titled: ‘Vocational competencies required in management of Beekeeping Questionnaire’ (VCMBQ) was developed by the researchers and used for data collection. The instrument was validated by three experts - one validate from the Department of Forestry and two from the Department of Vocational Agriculture and Technology Education all from the University of Agriculture, Makurdi. Cronbach Alpha method of reliability was used to establish reliability coefficient of 0.93. The data was analyzed using mean to answer research questions and t-test statistics to test the null hypotheses at 5 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that 53 vocational competencies (skills) are required by youths for management of beekeeping in the area of study. Hypothesis tested also revealed that there was no significant difference in the mean rating of responses of beekeepers and extension agents on Vocational competencies required by youth for bee hive management. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended amongst others that the extension agents should package the identified competencies into training modules to enhance mastery of these competencies.

Keywords: Vocational competencies, Management of beekeeping, Youths and job creation.