End youth unemployment.Support trade education.

Background

The End Youth Unemployment. Support Trade Education project is an early intervention approach to curb youth unemployment. The project seeks to propel thousands of students to start a lifelong journey of vocational learning and career development. The principal objective of the project is to equip graduates of senior secondary schools with industry-relevant trade-specific competencies that allow for informed career decision and exploration of career paths.

Some of the activities to be implemented during the project are Occupation Analysis of the Trade area, 2nd Stakeholder meeting and visits to the related industries.

Occupation Analysis workshop

An occupational Analysis workshop for the Automotive Mechatronics Technician (AMT) took place on the 16^th -17^th January 2020. It was a two-day event attended by the Automotive industry experts. Representatives of the State curriculum service were also in attendance. The workshop was facilitated using a DACUM model to develop the competency development framework, which is later translated into Curriculum for Off-the-Job Training (Class-Based Training / Instructor Lead Training.  The experts provided details of the tasks performed by an AMT in the industry as of today.  The information offers the basis for what students learn while in school. It also serves as a working document in developing a competency-based curriculum.

The workshop is driven by the rapid evolution of the global automobile industry, especially with the advent of new technologies and its influence on the Nigerian auto industry. There are now more sophisticated vehicles with systems that are more computerised and thus results in a surge in demand for competent auto technicians. The rise in demand for skilled AMT will provide employment opportunities for young people which will, in turn, lead to the influx of people into the auto sector – even people with little or no proper training.

Unfortunately, with no existing training structure/standard in place, the competence profile of the Automotive Mechatronics Technician (AMT) needs to be analysed as a first step in developing a curriculum for the AMT’s education, training, and development.

Objectives of the Workshop

1. To conduct a functional analysis of an Automotive Mechatronics Technician.
2. To develop a competency chart for the job of the Automotive Mechatronics Technician.

Workshop Overview

As stated earlier, the DACUM workshop was conducted to develop a curriculum for the education, training, and development of potential Automotive Mechatronics Technicians (AMT).

To achieve this, we need to create a competency profile of the job. The process involves professionals and experts with a reputation for being the “top performers” on their careers, working on a short-term panel assignment with a facilitator.

The panellist then creates a completed chart showing a graphical profile of the duties and tasks performed by successful workers in the occupation, including related information about the job. The chart concisely describes the role and provides a reliable and relevant foundation for the development of curriculum or training materials.

Workshop Activities

The workshop commenced at 9:30 am with a standard DACUM orientation to provide the panellist with a foundation. We explored the DACUM philosophies and performed exercises on crafting a duty and task statement. Next, we reviewed the job of the Automotive Mechatronics Technician and started identifying the general areas of responsibility and classified those as Duties. We then identified the job tasks under each duty by performing a thorough job analysis.

Next, the panellist participated in a brainstorm session of identifying job tasks through job analysis. All the task statements and duty statements were then refined and reviewed by strictly following the task and duty statement criteria.

After this, we continued reviewing and properly structuring the task and duty statements. We then had the panellist sequence them and put them through a logical flow.

With the chart written out and pasted, we then started brainstorming on the Enablers, i.e. the general knowledge and skills, work behaviour, tools, equipment, supplies & materials.

Workshop Methodology

One of the benefits of this workshop is that experts can now concisely describe their job and can demonstrate an understanding of the necessary tasks and duties that an Automotive Mechatronics Technician should have.

With these benefits in mind ;

• We conducted a panel session for these experts, facilitated by a certified DACUM instructor.
• We conducted several brainstorming sessions: Brainstorming technique helps to draw on the collective expertise of the panellist and to obtain consensus.
• We facilitated the panellist consensus on each statement and the final chart adequately.

We also visited several automotive industries to discuss partnership opportunities. They are willing to support the project by providing internship slots to the students, upskilling the teachers, Lab design, mentorship and also provide some tools and equipment for the lab.

Next Steps

• Competency chart verification
• Curriculum development for the trade area
• Curriculum presentation
• Follow up on the partners