Developing soft skills through project-based learning in technical and vocational institutions

Abstract

Soft skills have become critical in the preparation of employable graduates. The education system must, therefore, aim to ensure quality training for the production of employable graduates. Soft skills are personal abilities that one retains and can adequately be nurtured through active participation of students in the teaching and learning process. It is validated by researchers that the prevalent employability skills deficiencies have been one of the main causes of unemployment globally. Consequently, soft skills have all the potentials for equipping graduates with adequate employability skills. Thus, this study investigated the effect of project-based learning on the development of soft skills among technical students at technical and vocational colleges, Kaduna State, Nigeria Smart PLS software was used to test the developed model. As the sample size for this study was relatively small, the researchers were not certain to have normally distributed data. Subsequently, Smart PLS is appropriate for non-normally distributed data and therefore, it was used to simultaneously evaluate the measurement model, structural models and to confirm the convergent and discriminant validity of the measure. The study revealed that collaborative skills construct have a significant positive relationship with soft skills of technical students at technical and vocational colleges, while communication skills, initiative skills, and problem-solving skills have a positive insignificant relationship with soft skills of technical students at technical and vocational colleges. The findings of this study suggest that the curriculum of technical programs in Nigerian technical colleges need to be reviewed and geared more towards activity-based teaching and learning to enable technical students effectively develop soft skills for employment.