Capacity Building Needs of Employment-Ready Graduates of Senior Secondary Schools in Cricket (Acheta Domestica) Production Enterprise for Self-Reliance in Benue State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study determined capacity building of employment- ready graduates of senior secondary schools in cricket production enterprise for self-reliance in Benue state, Nigeria. Three research questions were answered and three hypotheses tested for the study. Survey research design was used for the study. The population for the study was 87 participants comprising 64 Agricultural Science Teachers and 23 Agricultural Extension Agents. All the population was used because it was small and manageable for the researchers to handle. Cricket Production Enterprise Questionnaire (CPEQ) was validated by three experts and used for data collection. Cronbach Alpha formula was used to determine the reliability of the CPEQ items, which gave a reliability index of 0.86.Three research assistants were trained and involved in the administering and retrieving the CPEQ. Data collected were analyzed using arithmetic mean for answering the research questions and t-test statistic for testing the null hypotheses at 0.05-level of significance. It was found that employment-ready graduates required 15-breeding and feeding operations, 23-harvesting and collection operation and 24-processing and marketing operation. It was recommended among others that National Directorate of Employment (NDE) should use the findings from the study to train-employment-ready graduates of senior secondary schools in Benue state for self-reliance, employment graduates should be given soft loans to encourage commercial cricket production as this will increase their income and senior secondary school teachers should seek more training on cricket production to provide effective training to students in senior secondary schools.