PERCEIVED EFFECTIVENESS OF WORK-BASED LEARNING AS A STRATEGY FOR STUDENTS TRAINING FOR IMPROVED PERFORMANCE IN BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS IN SOUTH-EAST NIGERIA

The study determined work-based learning as a strategy considered effective for training students for improved performance in business organizations in South East, Nigeria. The Descriptive survey research design was adopted. The population of the study was 144 business educators in tertiary institutions in the South East, Nigeria. One research question guided the study and one hypothesis were tested at 0.05 level of significance. An 8 item questionnaire was used for data collection. The questionnaire was tested for validity and for the reliability of the instrument which stood at 0.86 alpha respectively. The data generated from the study were analyzed using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation and Analysis of Variance. The mean ratings was used to answer the research question while standard deviation was used to determine the closeness of the respondents’ means. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used in testing the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that the respondents considered the engaging students in work-based learning as an effective strategy for training students for improved performance in business organizations. Furthermore, the findings revealed that years of experience of the respondents did not significantly influence their mean ratings on the effectiveness of engaging students in work based learning as a strategy for training students for improved performance in business organizations. It was recommended among others, that administrators of business education programme should go into partnership with private organization so as to work out a work-based learning arrangement that will improve students’ work skills. It was also recommended that work-based learning programme should be integrated into business education programmes as a full course by the administrators of business education programme in tertiary institutions.