Psychosocial Factors as Determinants of Vocational Skills Acquisition among Undergraduates in the University of Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined self-esteem and socioeconomic status as determinants of vocational skills acquisition among undergraduates in the University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo State. The study adopted descriptive survey design, 129 students were drawn as the sample from the university using the convenient sampling technique. Of the respondents, 58(45.0%) were males and 71(55.0%) were females and the respondents' age ranged from 18 years to 27 years. Two standardised psychological test instruments were used namely: Hare Self-Esteem Scale and Gaur's Socio-economic Status Classification Scale and data collected was subjected to both descriptive and inferential statistical analyses. Two hypotheses were generated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The findings from the first hypothesis reveal that self-esteem had the significant influence on vocational skills acquisition among undergraduates (t= 2.516 > t-tab=1.976, p< 0.05). However, the results of the second hypothesis revealed that socio-economic status had no significant influence on vocational skills acquisition among undergraduates (F (2,126) =0.182, p>0.05).  The study concluded that while self-esteem served as a determinant of vocational skills acquisition among undergraduates in the University of Ibadan, socioeconomic status did not affect their preference for vocational skills acquisition.