Productive Participation of the Physically Challenged through Technical Vocational Education Training Programmes in Rivers State

The study examined the productive participation of the physically challenged through Technical Vocational Education Training programmes in Rivers State. A population of 387 registered mobility impaired and visually impaired persons were used for the study while a sample of 284 was selected through purposive sampling technique. Three research questions were answered, and three null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The instrument for data collection was a self-structure questionnaire developed by the researchers that was structured in the pattern of 5-point Likert rating scale of agreement and extent. The instrument was face and contents validated by three experts. The reliability of the instrument was established through Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) which yielded correlation coefficient of 0.86. Mean and standard deviation were used to analyse the research questions while z-test was used to test the hypotheses. The study found among others that unwillingness of the participant to training, discrimination, lack of jobs after training and high technical fees were some of the barriers for implementing TVET to the physically challenged persons in Rivers State. It was recommended among others that at least two TVET special schools and training centres should be built (setup) in each senatorial zone in Rivers State, trained technical teachers should be employed, TVET programmes should be free for productive participation of the physically challenged in Rivers State.