Service learning approaches instrumentation to community development in the 21st century

Abstract

The expectation of the society from the institutions of higher learning is to produce sound graduates that fit in directly to the society need. These were among the anticipations of the societies, in the 21st century from graduates. The researcher finds utmost important most especially for our Technical and Vocational Education students to be skilled, not only on the technical aspect but also the employability one’s that is also known as soft skills. The adoption of experiential learning approach in the era of 4th Industrial Revolution seems to be the solution to the demand of the production of graduates of the trend of the time in the higher schools of learning. The research study sought to establish that Service Learning Model of teaching is suitable for impacting both the technical and employability skill for TVE students in other to fits to the needs of their hosting societies at large. A qualitative research approach was adopted for this research study, an interview protocol, where experts from the Department of Technical and Engineering Education were interviewed. Data collected were analyzed. The findings of the study the teaching approach suitable for the 21st century, as students’ centeredness experiential learning. The community gets a better living improvement, long-life learning, the students are confident in knowledge transfer, team working skills, while the institutional got a much more reputable, collaboration and partnership. Based on the findings, it is recommended that as a matter of necessity the TVET teachers/lecturers to adopt service learning in their teaching and learning approach.