University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK
Introduction
Faced with the challenges of unemployment, high dropout rates, a lack of application of learning into practice and disengagement of students from education and training, the attention of policy in Nigeria has been on increase of the young adult development of lifelong learning attributes (entrepreneurship and learning-to-learn skills). There was little agreement on the degree to which lifelong learning attributes can be developed and whose responsibility is to teach them (Freeman, et al., 2008; Treleaven and Voola, 2008). It was argued that development of competences and skills are influenced by pedagogical
processes that promote practice and active engagement of learners (Lave and Wenger, 1991). Meanwhile Knowles (1975) argues that adults’ capacity for self-direction and confidence is being influence by teaching and learning that helps towards seeing the immediate outcome of learning. The research is drawing from number of assumptions on processes that influence young adult development of lifelong learning attributes
(entrepreneurship and learning-to-learn skills) due to complex nature of lifelong learning, which is very difficult to be address from single theoretical framework. Therefore, the study draws from the works of (Rae 1999; Mezirow, 2009; World Economic Forum; Lave and Wenger 1991 and Wenger, 1998).
The paper draws on the qualitative interviews conducted with young adult who participated in Youth Craft Village with a view to develop lifelong learning attributes (self-independent, self-employment, self-direction and enterprising skills and capacity for learning through life). The study focused on the triggers for young adult participation in entrepreneurship programmes and factors that influence the development entrepreneurship and learning-to- learn skills among the participants. The preliminary finding of the study has shown that necessity, pressures and quest for learning to fulfilling life dream are triggers; it also shows that teaching and learning approaches that gives opportunity for practice seems to help students’ to develop confidence, self-direction and greater appreciation of learning. It shows the limitation of the practical pedagogy in promoting some entrepreneurial skills. Context of the study
Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa with the population of 163 million people (National Bureau for Statistics, 2010) with the annual growth rate of 2.8%. The projected population as at 2016 based on 2.8 annual growth rates placed the population 183 million people. The country is endowed with human and material resources. According to National literacy survey (2010) literacy profile of the country is at 56.9% and this shows that 43.1% are not literate. This indicator of the literacy rate is measured using English language as a yardstick, thereby not acknowledging literacy from other perspectives. The unemployment is high in the country, for example the unemployment rate for Female is 51.9% whereas for Male is at 48.1%. The young person that constitutes the strength of the country aged 15- 35 constitutes 64 million across gender (NBS, 2010). However, they are affected with so many challenges ranging from unemployment, dropout rate, lack of application of learning into practice as well as disengagement from education and training.
youth and the youth lack the appropriate skills for living in the 21st century. This is to the
detriment of the peaceful co-existence of the country. Evidence suggests the growing restlessness of young people is frustrated by unemployment, lack of opportunity;
increasing competition for jobs; and disengagement from education training (Bloom et al.,
2010). Ifeoma, (2013) confirms that youth unemployment and disengagement from education and training promotes robbery, destitution, political thuggery, kidnapping and social unrest that is disturbing Nigeria. With the precarious situation within the context government at both national and state level has been making efforts in the promoting of entrepreneurship and learning-to-learn skills among the youth (National Policy on
Education, 2004). For example, the National Council on Education has recommended entrepreneurship courses at all level of the Nigeria’s educational system. National Policy on Education (2004) enshrined lifelong learning at all level of education to serve as a means of developing institutional and individual capacities for access and integration:
Lifelong learning to serve for the development of the individuals into sound and effective citizens and their full integration into community…and the provision of equal access to educational opportunities for all citizens of the country…at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels both within and outside of the formal school system (NPE, 2004, p.2). With this background the present study seeks to examine the process to which young adult acquire lifelong learning attributes. For the purpose of this study, I will look at the young adult at Youth Craft Village (YCV) in Nigeria, to examine the triggers for their participation as well as how the teaching and learning approaches help to promote entrepreneurship and learning-to-learn skills among young adults.
Youth Craft Village is a programme designed to prepare young adult at disadvantage for self-employment and further learning (YCV, Manual, 2016). The YCV is funded by Katsina State Government. It selects disadvantaged and marginalised youth aged 17 to 30 and train them with the appropriate skills for life (USAID, 2016). The school also offers counselling to trainees, many of whom come from troubled backgrounds, and integrates into the mainstreaming of educational process. According to the interview I conducted recently with the officials of YCV they said there is no age limits for females because of their perceived disadvantage within the society. The programme was first established in 2009 and according (USAID, 2016) the institution has trained over 10,000 young adult, however there was no tracker of the activities of the young adult as to their progress after graduation. The mission of the institution is to remove unemployed youths from the streets by providing skills, knowledge and attitude for self-employment and learning (YCV Manual, 2016). The Katsina State Education Sector Plan (2010) shows that all the existing
educational policies in the state are in accordance with the policies of lifelong learning as enshrined in the (NPE, 2004).
Definitions of concepts and Literature review
Entrepreneurship skills
The concept of entrepreneurship is associated with terms such as entrepreneur, enterprise and small scale business often used interchangeably (Henry, Hill and Leitch, 2005). For example, an entrepreneur is someone has the capacity to take a risk, evaluate
opportunities, gather resources, and initiate necessary action to take advantage of those resources for making profits to sustain business activity (Meredith, Nelson, and Neck, 1982; Tiernan et al., 1996). There has been an increased concern at the policy level towards the promotion of such as values as innovation, self-reliance, self-direction, risk- taking, financial management, openness to new information, networking and financial control (Volkmann, 2009). With the Rae (1999) and World Economic Forum (2011)
arguments entrepreneurs grows through combination of processes through formal and informal situations. Rae (1999) argues that entrepreneurship qualities may as a result of experiential learning and networks of relationship with other stakeholders.
A study by Rae and Carswell (2000) found that learning-by-doing build learners experience and entrepreneurial attributes. Kanji and Greenwood (2001) found that
opportunity centred-learning is best achieved by actions to be conducted by the students. A recent study by Chang, Benamraoui, and Rieple (2014) found that learning through practice and doing activity enable students to developed entrepreneurial skills and knowledge of social business; and also found that the strategy is capable of developing entrepreneurial skills but with limitation. However, Schlee, Curren and Harich (2009) earlier found that many social entrepreneurship programme that emphasis classroom learning, with little opportunities for students to practice and create ideas does not develop the students capacity to take risk. Rae and Carswell (2000) found that classroom teaching hardly promote such competences such as overcoming fear and ability to deal with
uncertain challenges. Erik de Corte (1996) suggests to developed lifelong skills the teaching and learning environment should have some powerful features. Erik de Corte (1996) suggests:
“a good balance between discovery learning and personal exploration’ and systematic instruction and guidance”; progressively increase’ of ‘share of self-regulation and opportunities to use a rich array of resources’ and for ‘social interaction and
collaboration’; “flexible adaptation of the instructional support to accommodate individual differences and stages of learning”; “facilitate the acquisition of general learning and thinking skills” (Erik de Corte, 1996, p.123-124).
These shows that certain pedagogies influence the development of entrepreneurship skills, for example, Wenger (1998) argues that not only pedagogies influence learning, confidence, curiosity but they also promote social interaction among students to learn and develop interest in further learning.
Learning-to-Learn skills
Learning-to-learn skills was argued to be essential for effective lifelong learning to develop through lifespan of individuals (Candy, Crebert, and O’leary, 1994; Cornford, 2002).
Learning-to-learn is the ability to pursue and persist in learning, to organise one's own learning, including through effective management of time and information, both individually and in groups (EC, 2006 p.8).
The EC (2006) suggests that building on learning-to-learn make learners be able to access, gain, process and assimilate new knowledge and skills. This requires
management of learning and time, critical reflection, perseverance, autonomous learning with self-discipline. Previous research associated learning-to-learn skills with meta-
cognitive skills such as self-regulation, self-direction and self-image (Knapper and Cropley, 2000). Making a case for strategies for development of learning-to-learn skills, Sternberg (1998) suggests that metacognitive skills, which require planning, monitoring and
evaluation as learning-to-learn, are only likely to be achieved through work experience. Weinstein and Meyer, 1994) suggests that teaching through practice is likely to
development learning-to-learn skills. Lave and Wenger (1991) shows that the apprentices are the ones more dramatically transformed because of increase participation in the practice activities. This is in line with Billet (2014) who suggests that ‘most learning for occupation…is the product of active engagement of learners rather than being taught (Billet, 2014, p.1).
Methodology
This paper draws from an on-going project that is investigating lifelong learning attributes among young adult in Nigeria. It is an on-going project and it involve interviews with students and instructors with a view of understanding the triggers and pedagogies that influence the development of lifelong learning attributes among young adult learners. The interviews were face-face and lasted for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Qualitative research
approach was adopted based on the believed that knowledge is socially constructed through engagement, experience and interaction with multiples processes within the society (Cohen and Crabtree, 2006). The study examines the voices of young adult and the researcher was part of the process as an insider. The interviews were conducted in local language in order to generate data and the used of the local language has supported the research with large volume of data. The interviews were good source of data however; sometimes the participants keep on rescheduling the interviews.
The data was thematically analysed using Braun and Clarke (2006). The data was sorted and categories and themes were identified, analysed and reported. The themes emerged from the interview transcripts with ease. The next paragraph will provide the preliminary findings of the study in relation to triggers for young adult learners returning to education. It will also provide report on the impact of pedagogical process in the young adult
development of lifelong learning attributes. The study is a work in progress as it would just reflect on summary of the preliminary findings.
Summary of the Preliminary Findings and Discussion
The findings show the emergence of themes such as necessity and major transition in life; pressures; quest for learning and fulfilling life dreams as the factors responsible for young adults returning to learning, for example, comment from students revealed as follows:
Life was very difficult especially now, I am living with parents after being divorced and I have a little daughter to look after and protect; I just want be self-employed or be gainfully employed (L6)
I just decided to find something to do with my time before I start my National service which is expected of every graduate (L15)
Eh…honestly, I made my decision because I was tired of being idle and also the
pressure from relative that I am unproductive… That makes me to get engaged with
learning again especially learning to be independent L14
The findings indicated the triggers for young adults’ participation in learning. This finding reflected Mezirow’s (2009) transformative theory. It has reflected sense of dissatisfaction with the prior situation as reasons for young adult engagement with education and training. The second analysis reflected the role of practical pedagogy, group learning and sharing among fellows in the promotion of lifelong learning attributes. The finding revealed that practical pedagogies has influence in the young adult development of confidence, self- direction, and team work, opportunity for practice, sharing and application of skills. All of the participants have shown that there engaged in practical learning and it boosted their confidence and curiosity. This has reflected Lave and Wenger (1991) and Wenger (1998) where they suggested that knowing and understanding are influence by pedagogies that promote practice and discussion. This is also in line with Billet (2014) who suggests that ‘most learning for occupation…is the product of active engagement of learners rather than being taught (Billet, 2014, p.1). Hillier (2002) suggests that education has a transformative potential; if participants learn to make changes in their personal, social and political life
through practice, action and critical reflection.
The finding also revealed that those practical pedagogies are limited in the development of academic rigor and entrepreneurial skills. Many of the participants have indicated the limitation of practical pedagogy in the development of entrepreneurial skills. The finding is against the Schlee, Curren and Harich (2009), which suggest that emphasis on classroom learning, with little opportunities for students to practice and create ideas does not develop the students’ capacity to take risk. It has been argued that developing entrepreneurship and learning-to-learn skills requires active methods (Cornford, 2002; Rae, 1999).
The analysis indicated some informal process among the fellows help the young adult to developed lifelong learning skills. The informal learning structure was found to be effective source of learning and building confidence. Overall some lifelong learning skills have been developed on the basis of the evidence of analysis of the interview transcripts but not without limitation to the achievement of other lifelong learning attributes.
Conclusion
In conclusion the study listen to the voices of the participants with regards to the role of pedagogy and learning space in the transformation of students toward development of learning-to-learn skills and entrepreneurship attributes. The finding is a preliminary working to map out the categories and themes that emerged from the overall study. This qualitative study analyses the learners’ motivations and experiences for engaging in Youth Craft Village entrepreneurship and learning-to-learn skills programme. The findings have indicated significant improvement in the young adults’ achievement of lifelong learning attributes. The finding is in line with Erik de Corte (19960 who suggested that flexible adaptation of the instructional support that accommodate individual differences and stages of learning; facilitate the acquisition of general learning and thinking skills” (Erik de Corte, 1996, p.123-124). The last part of examines the outcomes and impact of entrepreneurship and learning-to-learn among young adult graduates and their respective communities. Reference
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