Evaluation of Garment-Making Techniques in Vocational Skills Acquisition Training Centres in Ondo State, Nigeria

Nigeria’s vocational skill acquisition programme aimed to reduce the rate of unemployment. However, the programme seems to be facing some difficulties, such as poor funding by the Nigerian government, a shortage of qualified trainers for the teaching and supervision of trainees, poor monthly remuneration for the trainers, and a lack of up-to-date equipment and training infrastructure for garment-making. With the above challenges facing the programme, the research also evaluated the level of skills acquired by the trainees before becoming professional practitioners, particularly as different garment-making styles required specific techniques of sewing. This study examined one hundred and six (106) registered trainees’ competencies at the vocational skills acquisition centres through the administration of a set of questionnaires. Twenty –two (22) vocational skill acquisition centres in Ondo State offering the fashion design trade were selected for the study. The results revealed that trainees demonstrated exceptionally high proficiency in tasks such as “Trim seams†and “Replace buttons,†with over 97% rating their competency at level 5. This indicated that they performed these tasks “Very Well.†Other skills like “Stitch darts,†“Press darts,†and “Apply facings†also showed trainees’ high proficiency at performing the tasks, with the majority of them at level 5. However, some tasks revealed a small percentage of trainees’ skills at levels 2 to 4, indicating areas needing improvement.