12 Perception And Attitude Of Employers Of Labour Towards Open And Distance Learning Graduates In Minna Metropolis, Niger State, Nigeria

Abstract 

This study was carried out to investigate the perception and attitude of employers of labour towards open and distance learning towards graduates in Minna Metropolis, Niger state, Nigeria. Descriptive survey research design was employed and employers of labour in Minna metropolis in Niger State were used as research sample. Four research questions guided the study and a 19-item questionnaire was used as instrument for data collection. The questionnaire was validated by educational technology experts. Pilot test was carried out and reliability coefficients of 0.74 and 0.88 were respectively obtained for the two sections of the questionnaire. Data collected from the administration of the research instruments were analyzed using descriptive statistics of Mean and Standard Deviation. A decision rule was set, in which a mean score of 3.0 and above was considered Agreed, while a mean score below 3.0 were considered Disagreed. Findings revealed that employers of labour have positive perception about ODL graduates with grand mean score of 4.32. Also, employers of labour response indicated that they have positive attitude towards ODL graduates with a grand mean score of 4.53. Based on these findings, it was recommended that organizations should be encouraged not to discriminate between traditional degree holder and ODL degree holder.

Keywords: Open and distance learning, Perception, Attitude, Employers of labour

Introduction

The strength and level of development of any country lie on the strength and development of her human resources. Education is the bedrock of all human sectors–political, scientific, and agricultural and security. It is an instrument of change and an instrument of modernization and discovery. This possibly makes true the saying that, no nation can raise above the quality of education its received (Aluede, et al. 2012).

Education is a tool used for the development of human beings in cognitive, affective, psychomotor and psycho-productive domains.  It involves the development of human behaviour through the process of teaching and learning and it can be seen as the total development of the individual child through acceptable methods and techniques according to his abilities and interests to meet up with the needs of the society and for the individual to take his rightful place and contribute equally to the enhancement of the society (Amaele et al. 2011). Afolabi and Loto (2012) stated that a developed or educated society is the one that has enough manpower and that each person occupies his or her rightful position to enhance the growth of the society.  Ajayi and Afolabi (2009) also remarked that education is largely perceived in Nigeria as an indispensable tool which will not only assist in meeting the nation’s social, political, moral, cultural and economic aspirations but will also inculcate in the individual knowledge, skills, dexterity, character and desirable values that will foster national development and self-actualization.

Obasanjo (2012) stated that education trains individuals to relate to and interact meaningfully with others in the society and to appreciate the importance of effective organization for human progress. From the definition of education given, it is clear that education trains an individual to be useful in the society and to meet up with the need of the society for national development. Therefore, it should be clear that without education, a nation cannot get the needed manpower for material advancement and enlightenment of the citizenry.  The trained engineers, teachers, medical doctors, among others are all the products of education.  This explains why it is argued that the quality of a nation’s education especially the tertiary education determines the level of its national development.

Tertiary education which is also referred to as post-secondary education in Nigeria is the education following successful completion of secondary or post-primary schooling. The Nigeria’s goal of tertiary education is channelled towards higher education through high level manpower training, self-reliance, national utility and international understanding. Federal Republic of Nigeria (FRN, 2009). In pursuit of this goal, tertiary education is classified into levels which include Universities, Polytechnics, Monotechnics, Colleges of Education, among others (Amaghionyeodiwe & Osinubi, 2006).

The application of ICT-based learning has great potential for increasing access to university education in Nigeria. The advent of the internet has modernized educational delivery in Nigeria. Several schools and colleges today have started offering online courses. Several academic institutions have been established in Nigeria in the last few years that offer accredited career enhancement programmes to students (Sharon, 2012). Open and Distance Education is a formal education system that deploys ICT facilities to communicate, teach, coach and facilitate productive learning amongst students who are domiciled in distant locations. Such education system is said to be open because students are not limited by such conditions/factors like age, sex, pregnancy, work, race, religion among others. It is an education that is open to all.

Open and distance learning has been considered as a worthwhile and cost effective means of increasing provision for higher education without costly expenditure in infrastructure. Jegede, (2016) viewed Open and distance learning as a cost-effective instruction that is independent of time, location, pace and space. It is increasingly being accepted as an educational delivery standard which is viable and flexible without sacrificing quality. Notwithstanding, ODL has been received with mixed feelings by different stakeholders all over the world but the facts remains that in Nigeria and in most developing countries, this mode of learning has played a fundamental role in equipping the nations with expert personnel in various sectors of the economy that involve employers of labour. Moreover, labour laws have contributed immensely to curbing the arbitrariness of employers of labour, particularly the public and private sector, in handling workers’ grievances.

Towards the end of the first three decades of twentieth century, Nigeria, witnessed a substantive shift from the classical propositions to the new proposition. These statutory developments were based on the new proposition of the neo-classical school which include: Labour Law: The law that governs the complex relationship between employees, management and government, together with their respective organizations, trade unions, employers association and governmental agencies. The position of government, as the single largest employer of labour in Nigeria, complements its sovereign power and control of industrial relation both of which enable the state to establish rules and norms and a wide range of other matters relating to employment relation through its legislative, adjudicative and administrative function. Industrial Relations: Onah (2003) sees industrial relations as anything that affects the relationship of the individual worker or group of workers with their employers. He further stated that it involves anything which affects the employee from the time he is interviewed until he leaves his job. But for an employer of labour to have good relationship with the employees, they have to possess a positive perception towards them.

However, it is of utmost importance to know that employers of labour have different perceptions towards hiring graduates who have earned their degree traditionally or through ODL system. Wilk and Cappelli (2003) suggested that Employer’s decisions about the selection of employees are central to the operation of the organizations and to outcomes that matter to individuals, organizations, and society. Employers of labour perceived the graduates of ODL through their sensory input. Griesel and Parker’s (2009) holds the view that employers value the conceptual foundation, knowledge and intellectual approach to tasks produced by higher education, and that there may be more of a common language between higher education and employees than is generally perceived. It is common for employers to express concern about the gap that exists between employers and higher education on the outcomes of graduates (Harvey, 2001).

Adams and DeFleur (2005) observed that only a handful of the numerous distance education programmes are fully accredited or taught by recognized universities. In a study involving analysis of literature on the perceptions of the quality and value of external degrees over twenty five years, Puffer (2005) observed that although graduates report a high degree of satisfaction with their educational experience and employers accept external degrees, employers favour degrees offered by traditional institutions over those offered by for-profit providers.

Employers and human resource personnel are important stakeholders in distance education as their hiring decisions and practices impact on the utility of the credentials obtained through distance learning. Hiring “gatekeepers’ are persons such as receptionists, human resource recruiters, and resume screeners who stand between job seekers and those who want to hire them (Mitchell 2003; Columbaro & Monaghan, 2009). The perception of employers of labour can also go a long way in affecting their preparedness or readiness of recruiting the ODL graduates.

Attitude is one of the most prominent variables that have not been so much considered in various related studies particularly from the African context and Nigeria particularly (Adeyinka & Bashorun, 2012). Attitude can be defined as an inner psychic state influencing behaviour (Butler, 2013). The inner state of a person can be understood from his actions and words. For instance, an employer may not want to employ an ODL graduate just because of their biasness toward the institution.

The attitude of job satisfaction is a field of major interest to the researchers of organizational behaviour and the practice of human resource management (Luthans, 2005). Job satisfaction is the degree to which individuals feel positively or negatively about their jobs. Consequently, attitudes are formed in the process of experience and change is possible due to the internal and external factors. Employers’ positive or negative attitudes towards ODL graduate in relation to employability context will influence their degree of acceptance or rejection and the nature of their interactions.

Statement of the Research Problem 

The number of admission seekers into tertiary institution keeps increasing every year. The conventional institutions of higher learning cannot solely cater for rising need of prospective students as physical facilities needed are not available. Even when these facilities are available, some admission seekers prefer to enrol for open and distance learning programme because of their job and family engagements. Open and Distance Learning has therefore complement the conventional University to cater for the enrolment need of individuals willing to pursue higher degree programme.

In developed countries the labour market is open to all trends of graduates without discrimination on the bases of types of institution attended. What is important to employers of labour is the ability of graduates to posses needed skill, work competence and ability to meet up with job productivity demands.

However, in Nigeria, there has been a great controversy to whether the ODL graduates are to be allowed to go for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and the Law School. This controversy makes one to begin to wonder whether Nigerian employers are in doubt of the certificate obtained by graduates from ODL institutions or could it be that the employers of labour are in doubt of the quality of graduates from the ODL institutes? Hence, this study seeks to investigate the perception, readiness and attitude of employers of labour towards the ODL graduates in Minna Metropolis, Niger State, Nigeria.

Aim and Objectives of the Study

The aim of this study is to investigate the perception and attitude of employers of labour towards Open and Distance Learning (ODL) graduates in Minna Metropolis, Niger state, Nigeria. Specifically, the study will determine:

1. the perception of employers of labour on ODL graduates in Minna Metropolis
2. the attitude of employers of labour towards ODL graduates in Minna Metropolis
3. whether differences exist in the perception of public and private employers of labour on ODL graduates
4. whether differences exist in the attitude of public and private employers of labour towards ODL graduates.

Research Questions 

The following research questions guided the study:

1. What is the perception of employers of labour on ODL graduates in Minna Metropolis, Niger State, Nigeria?
2. What is the attitude of employers of labour towards ODL graduates?
3. What is the difference in the perception of public and private employers of labour on ODL graduates?
4. What is the difference in the attitude of public and private employers of labour towards ODL graduates?

Research Hypotheses

The following hypothesis would be tested:

HO1    There is no significant difference between the perception of public and private employers of labour on ODL graduates

HO2    There is no significant difference in the attitude of public and private employers of labour towards ODL graduates.

Methodology

The research design that is adopted for this study is a descriptive survey design. The methodology involve the use of questionnaire to obtain the needed data from respondents (employers of labour) on their perception and attitudes towards graduates of open and distance learning institutes in labour market.

The population of this study consist of all Human Resource Professionals from both private and public establishments whose job titles indicate being responsible for employment, recruitment, and placement of job applicants in the Minna Metropolis of Niger State. The targeted population for this study comprises of 50 employers of labour in Niger state.

A multi-stage sampling technique was employed in selecting respondents for this study. Firstly, purposive sampling procedure would be used to select two local governments in Minna Metropolis of Niger State. The two local governments were purposefully selected because they are the major two local governments in the State capital of Niger State; as such many public and private establishments are instituted there. Also stratified sampling technique was employed to select 10 establishments from each of the categorised sectors from the total population which will include both the private and public establishments in Minna metropolis of Niger state, Nigeria.

A structured questionnaire was used for data collection for this study. The questionnaire was designed by the researcher and titled ‘Perception and Attitude of Employers of Labour towards ODL Graduate (PAELOG). The questionnaire consists of four sections (A, B, C & D). Section A will be used to collect demographic information of the respondents. Section B, comprises of 12 items on the respondents’ perception of ODL graduates. Section C, comprises of 10 items on the respondents’ level of readiness towards the recruitment of ODL graduate. Section D, comprises of 12 items on the respondents’ level readiness as regarding the release of their employees for further studies in ODL institutes. In each of these sections a 5 point likert scale which are Strongly Agee (SA) will be awarded 5 points, Agree (A) awarded 4 points, Undecided (U) awarded 3 points, Disagree (D) awarded 2 points, and Strongly Disagree (SD). A mean score within and above the decision mean of 3.0 was regarded as agreement while below 3.0 was regarded as disagreement.

The questionnaire that was used for data collection was validated by three lecturers from Education Technology Department, Federal University of Technology, Minna,  Niger State and one expert from National Open University Minna. The validation reports led to the modification and cancelation of some items in the questionnaire.

A pilot test was conducted to test the reliability of the instrument. A total number of 10 respondents from Gwada in Kuta Local Government Area of Niger State, who are part of the population but not part of the targeted sample for this study, were selected for the pilot test since they share related characteristics. The administration was done once and a reliability coefficient of 0.74 and 0.88 from the variables perception and attitude was obtained respectively using Cronbach Alpha formula to measure the internal consistency of the items. Based on the coefficient obtained, the instrument was considered reliable.

The data collected from the employers of labour was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The descriptive statistics would be used to provide answers to the research questions using mean and standard deviation.  T-test statistics would be used to test the null hypotheses formulated. Significant difference would be ascertained at alpha level of 0.05. The Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS Version 23) would be used for the analysis.

Results

In this section, Table 1-6 are presented with their interpretations tailored towards providing answers to the research questions raised to guide this study.

Table 1: Mean and standard deviation of employers’ of labour response on their perception about ODL graduates.

Decision mean = 3.0

Table 1 shows the Mean and standard deviation of employers’ of labour response on their perception about ODL graduates. The table shows the calculated mean score of 4.3 with Standard Deviation of 0.46 for item one, mean of 4.4 with Standard Deviation of 0.67 for item two, mean of 4.6 with Standard Deviation of 0.50 for item three, mean of 4.5 with Standard Deviation of 0.51 for item four, mean of 4.2 with Standard Deviation of 0.40 for item five, mean of 4.3 with Standard Deviation of 0.65 for item six, mean of 4.4 with Standard Deviation of 0.67 for item seven, mean of 3.9 with Standard Deviation of 0.71 for item eight, mean of 4.2 with Standard Deviation of 0.61 for item nine, mean of 4.4 with Standard Deviation of 0.50 for item ten, mean of 4.3 with Standard Deviation of 0.47 for item eleven and mean of 4.3 with Standard Deviation of 0.65 for item twelve. The table reveals further that, the grand mean score of responses to the 12 items is 4.32 which was greater than the decision mean score of 3.0. This implies that the employers of labour have positive perception about ODL graduate.

Table 2: Mean and standard deviation of employers’ of labour response based on their attitude towards ODL graduates.

Decision mean = 3.0

Table 2 shows the Mean and standard deviation of employers’ of labour response on their attitude towards ODL graduates. The table shows the calculated mean score of 4.26 with Standard Deviation of 0.66 for item one, mean of 4.06 with Standard Deviation of 0.71 for item two, mean of 4.48 with Standard Deviation of 0.68 for item three, mean of 4.68 with Standard Deviation of 0.47 for item four, mean of 4.78 with Standard Deviation of 0.42 for item five, mean of 4.88 with Standard Deviation of 0.33 for item six and mean of 4.58 with Standard Deviation of 0.50 for item seven. The table reveals further that, the grand mean score of responses to the 7 items is 4.53 which were greater than the decision mean score of 3.0. This implies that the employers of labour have positive attitude about ODL graduate.

Table 3: Mean and standard deviation response based on organization of ODL graduates employers

Table 3 shows the mean and standard deviation of public and private organization mean perception score towards employment ODL graduate. The result indicated that the mean and standard deviation of the two groups differ with a mean score of 28.89 with standard deviation of 1.55 for public organizations and mean score of 28.70 with standard deviation of 1.66 for private organization.

Table 4: Mean and standard deviation response on attitude of employers of labour of ODL graduate

Table 4 shows the mean and standard deviation of public and private organization mean attitude score towards employment ODL graduate. The result indicated that the mean and standard deviation of the two groups differ with a mean score of 30.46 with standard deviation of 2.28 for public organizations and mean score of 30.04 with standard deviation of 2.54 for private organization.

Hypothesis 1: There is no significant difference between the perception of public and private employers of labour on ODL graduates. To test this hypothesis, sample t-test independent is applied on the private and public organization response score regarding their perception about ODL graduate as presented in Table 5.

Table 5: t-test result of public and private employers of labour perception about ODL graduates

NS: Not Significant at 0.05 level

Table 5 presents the result of t-test analysis of organization about ODL graduates. The mean score of the public and private are 28.89 and 28.70 respectively. The t-value of 0.424 was not significant at 0.05 alpha level, and the p-value of 0.673 is greater than 0.05. Therefore, hypothesis one was accepted. This indicates that there is no significant difference between private and public organizations perception about employment of ODL graduates. This implies that both public and private organization have positive perception about ODL graduates.

Hypothesis 2: There is no significant difference in the attitude of public and private employers of labour towards ODL graduates. To test this hypothesis, sample t-test independent is applied on the private and public organization response score regarding their attitude towards ODL graduate as presented in Table 6.

Table 6: t-test result of public and private employers of labour attitudes towards ODL graduates

NS: Not Significant at 0.05 level

Table 6 presents the result of t-test analysis of organization about ODL graduates. The mean score of the public and private are 30.46 and 30.04 respectively. The t-value of 0.715 was not significant at 0.05 alpha level, and the p-value of 0.543 is greater than 0.05. Therefore, hypothesis two was accepted. This indicates that there is no significant difference between private and public organizations attitude towards employment of ODL graduates. This implies that both public and private organization have positive attitude about ODL graduates.

Discussion of Findings

Finding of this study on the perception of employers of labour about ODL graduates in Niger State, Nigeria indicated that organizations have positive perception about ODL graduates. Hypothesis one finds out if there is significant difference between the perception of public and private employers of labour on ODL graduates. The result shows that organization has no influence on employers perception about ODL graduates with the mean of 28.89 for public and 28.70 for private and the p-value of 0.673 which is not significant at 0.05 alpha level. This finding is in line with the earlier findings of Richard (2014), who found out that the employers would prefer the applicant with an ODL degree to one who completed a traditional degree. This finding is not in line with the earlier findings of Chaney (2002) and Thompson (2009), who found out that the employers would prefer the applicant with a traditional degree to one who completed an ODL degree.

Finding of this study on the attitude of employers of labour towards ODL graduates in Niger State, Nigeria indicated that organizations have positive attitude towards ODL graduates. Hypothesis two finds out if there is significant difference in the attitude of public and private employers of labour towards ODL graduates. The result shows that organization has no influence on employers attitude towards ODL graduates with the mean of 30.46 for public and 30.04 for private and the p-value of 0.543 which is not significant at 0.05 alpha level. This finding is in line with the earlier findings of Plantilla (2016), who found out that the employers have positive attitude towards applicants with traditional degree and those with ODL degree.

Conclusion

Findings of this study has revealed that the employers f labour in Niger State have positive perception towards ODL graduates. There is organizational difference towards the traditional degree holders and ODL degree holders. For optimum recognition of the ODL certificate, the government need to support open and distance learning so that organizations will not see any reason to compare and contrast between traditional degree holder and open and distance learning degree holder. The use of open and distance learning when it is well tailored would in no doubt improve the teaching and learning process in Nigeria.

Recommendations

Based on the findings that emanated from this study, the following recommendation were made:

1. Organizations should be encouraged not to discriminate between traditional degree holder and ODL degree holder. This will give equal right to the applicants of job.
2. Government should provide stable power supply, information and communication technology facilities for ODL centre which will aid them to have easy access to teaching and learning..

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Correspondence can be directed to:

Blessing Fausat Ogunje

Department of Educational Technology

School of Science and Technology Education

Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria

email: pcsminna@gmail.com

phone no: +2348032245618

Oluwole Caleb Falode

Department of Educational Technology

School of Science and Technology Education

Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria

email: oluwole.falode@futminna.edu.ng

phone no: +2348069626979