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Ajao et al.  Advancements in Agricultural Development 
  Volume 3, Issue 2, 2022 
  agdevresearch.org 

1. Helen Ajao, PhD Candidate, Virginia Tech, 801 University City Boulevard, Ste 21, Blacksburg, VA 24060, helen2@vt.edu,  

 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0966-1986    
2. I. Damilola Alegbeleye, Assistant Professor, University of Southern Maine, 18 Captain Way Unit 203, Brunswick ME 04011, 

ibukun.alegbeleye@maine.edu,  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8894-1256  
3. Donna Westfall-Rudd, Associate Professor, Virginia Tech, 175 West Campus Dr., MC 0343 214 Litton-Reaves Hall, 

Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, mooredm@vt.edu,  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2401-4023 
17 

 

Curriculum Design in an Agricultural Education Program in 
Nigeria: Towards Advancing Career Readiness 

 
H. Ajao1, I. D. Alegbeleye2, D. Westfall-Rudd3 

 
 

  

Abstract 

This research explores the effective curriculum design for higher-ed in preparing agricultural 
education graduates for Nigeria’s labor market. The continuing professional education program 
planning theory serves as the framework guiding this study. The study involves a phenomenological 
inquiry into the conscientious meaning experience of the faculty and alumni in an agricultural 
education department. A purposeful sampling method of 14 participants (four professors and 10 
alumni) was used to select participants since the study relied on individuals close to the 
phenomenon. Data was collected using a standardized open-ended questionnaire and the 
Department’s handbook. Three themes emerged: The Department's curriculum 
design/development; Stakeholder’s consultation; and Principles considered while designing the 
curriculum. Recommendations were made for the Department to continuously review and update 
the curriculum to reflect the current needs of the industry and students. Lastly, the current study 
was recommended to be replicated in other main agricultural institutions in Nigeria. 
 
 

Keywords 

Caffarella’s Interactive Model, curriculum planning, multidisciplinary model approach 



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Introduction and Problem Statement 
 
Agricultural education in Nigeria lacks an effective curriculum despite the belief that Nigerian 
tertiary institutions possess adequate curricular to teach agriculture (Ibrahim, 2014). A major 
root of this problem is that many instructional materials originated from developed countries 
during colonization, which applies to many African countries (Anderson et al. (2019); Ibrahim, 
2014). The Nigerian curricula are argued to be non-effective and not meeting the demands of 
the Nigerian industry, thus resulting in the absence of employable skills to integrate graduates 
into agricultural career paths in the Nigerian Agrarian workforce (Ajufo, 2013). These adopted 
curricula are ineffective because they fail to consider the culture of the Nigerian people 
(Okoroma, 2006). As a result, employers perceive that graduates are not fully prepared for 
work and believe that academic standards have depreciated over the past decades (Dabalem et 
al., 2004; Offorma & Onyia, 2011). It is now assumed that having a university degree is 
synonymous with technical incompetency. The agricultural education curriculum has been 
described as inadequate in preparing students for the workforce, as it fails to meet the needs of 
the industry (Ibrahim, 2014). Given this, many college graduates in agriculture are conceived as 
“half-baked” (Dabalem et al., 2004, p. 3). Therefore, there is a need for “the curriculum and the 
methodology to be restructured and reformed, which means designing the curriculum in 
alignment with the principles of production and training for self-dependency” (Ibrahim, 2014, p. 
7). Although there are many aspects of the agricultural industry, the agricultural sector in this 
study refers to agro-based public/private firms with various segments that include human 
resource management, administration, and production (Egun, 2010). 
 

Theoretical and Conceptual Framework 
 
The theoretical framework guiding this study is the program planning theory by Caffarella 
(2002). Caffarella (2002) stated that the curriculum is a program that involves many people, and 
the curriculum planner or developer must involve all these stakeholders in the decision-making 
of the curriculum. However, the involvement of stakeholders requires the negotiation of power 
among everyone (e.g., educators, learners, organizations) who bring their beliefs to the 
planning table (Caffarella, 2002; Cervero & Wilson, 2006). 
 
According to Cervero and Wilson (2006), designing a curriculum requires some planning 
process, which includes: “assessing the learning needs; developing learning objectives from 
assessed needs; designing learning content and the instruction format to meet the learning 
objectives; and evaluating the learning outcomes in terms of whether the objectives were 
achieved (p. 243)”. They termed this planning process as a conventional planning theory, which 
is also supported by Finch and Crunkilton (1993); these authors emphasized the need for 
decision-making regarding the content of the curriculum. Caffarella (2002) combines all these 
concepts into planning a program with an interactive model that explicitly reveals the various 
stages of planning a program or curriculum, known as a ‘guiding map’ in the planning process of 
a program. The model is interactive because it has no beginning or end, and it is made up of 



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various components and tasks useful for negotiating power (Caffarella, 2002). The interactive 
model comprises twelve components arranged circularly (see Figure 1). 
 
Figure 1 
 
Caffarella’s Interactive Model of Program Planning 

 
 
Note. Cafarella’s Interactive Model of Program Planning. Reprinted from Planning Programs for 
Adult learners: A practical guide for Educators, Trainers and Staff Developers (p. 21) by R. S. 
Cafarella, 2002, Jossey-Bass. Copyright 2002 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Reprinted with 
permission. 
 
Depending on the program, planners may elect to work with components simultaneously 
instead of working with everything at once or following a particular order (Caffarella, 2002). For 
instance, the needs assessment is the starting point in some programs, followed by the context 
and objectives. In contrast, other programs may prefer to start with coordinating facilities and 
on-site events. 
 
According to Caffarella (2002), in identifying the program, the planners should first identify the 
stakeholders who influence the curriculum. Also, the planner should determine their interest 
and finally make a judgment about their needs concerning their interest. However, in deciding 
whose interests’ matter, the planner should invite as many stakeholders as possible to the table 
to assess the educational requirements (Caffarella, 2002). Also, some stakeholders might not 
necessarily be at the table formally but informally (Cervero & Wilson, 2006).  
 



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Educational Situation in Nigeria 
The Nigerian curriculum, particularly in the learning delivery, is predicated on a teacher-
centered approach, which does not consider the students' needs and, therefore, needs to be 
restructured (Faboya & Adamu, 2017). The curriculum model used was adopted from the 
British, and when reconstructed, the essential stakeholders were not usually included in 
determining what not to adopt (Offorma & Onyia, 2011; Ohiwerei, 2019). According to Offorma 
and Onyia (2011), selecting a well-rounded strategy for teaching and learning is one of the 
essential parts of designing a curriculum, which includes a teacher-centered strategy and a 
student-centered teaching strategy.  
 
The University selected in the current study was one of the three main agricultural universities 
established by the Nigeria Federal Government in 1988. These three universities were 
mandated to carry out teaching, research, and extension in agriculture (Fapojuwo, 2015). Each 
University underwent the approval process of the National Union Commission (NUC), which is a 
government body under the Federal Ministry of Education (FME) and a regulatory agency that 
works with the Nigerian Universities in achieving full accreditation status, providing curriculum 
benchmarks for all the courses offered by universities as well as fostering a partnership 
between the Nigerian Universities system and the private sector (National Universities 
Commission, 2022). 
 

Purpose 
 
The purpose of the study was to explore the lived experiences of agricultural education 
professors who participated in designing the curriculum and alumni who were trained with the 
curriculum to understand the process involved in designing the curriculum and whether such a 
process considers the needs of the industry. The following research questions were asked: 
1. How were the course descriptions and objectives determined? 
2. How did the faculty members develop the instructional plans to address the course 

descriptions and objectives? 
3. What was the role of the industry needs in the planning process? 
 

Methods 
 

This study used a phenomenological inquiry into the professors' conscientious meaning 
experience and that of the alumni on the design of the curriculum (Patton, 2002, p. 104). To 
study this phenomenon, we selected samples from the population of professors and alumni in 
an Agriculture Department in a large-sized federal university in the South-Western region of 
Nigeria. The researchers chose this population because it is the foremost and pioneer 
Department of Agricultural Education in Nigeria. As a pioneer, the Department had an 
established curriculum that has been in use since 2009, which made it suitable for collecting 
rich data. Moreover, researchers selected the Department because it has produced alumni 
from 2015. We used a purposive and snowball sampling method to select participants. We 



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needed individuals close to the phenomenon (i.e., professors involved in designing the 
curriculum and alumni trained with the curriculum).  
 
The inclusion criteria required professors who: (1) were members of the Department since its 
inception in 2009, and (2) participated in the design of the curriculum. As a result, only five 
professors who met these criteria were invited to participate in the study. Of those five, four 
professors agreed to participate in the study. The head of the Department was among the four 
professors that participated in the study. The Department’s alumni, who were the first cohort 
of the department, were also invited to participate in the study. The alumni’s email addresses 
were retrieved from the Department’s directory. Ten alumni were invited, and they agreed to 
participate in the study. The final sample comprised 14 participants (n = 14), including four 
professors and 10 alumni. Seventy-five percent of the professors were males, while 25% were 
females. The age of the professors ranged from 45-60. All the professors had an organizational 
tenure of 10 years since the inclusion criteria required members of the department since its 
establishment in 2009. 
 
Within the qualitative phenomenology method, data were collected through an open-ended 
questionnaire. In addition, the Department’s curriculum (which was contained in the 
Department’s handbook) was used as a secondary source of data. An open-ended 
questionnaire, rather than interviews, was used to get in-depth information from the 
professors as well as the alumni of the Department. This is due to the cost that would have 
been incurred in traveling to the school and the inability of the participants to access stable 
WIFI or electricity in Nigeria to participate in an online video or audio call (Patton, 2015). 
Moreover, a standardized open-ended questionnaire is sometimes used to replace an interview 
to avoid biases (Gafni et al., 2003). The construction of the questionnaire was based on an 
apriori table created to include the research questions, propositions, and relevant literature. An 
experienced faculty member on the research team reviewed the questionnaires, and the final 
questionnaires included 14 questions each for both professors and alumni.  
 
Data were analyzed using a form of text analysis that includes a line-by-line analysis of data to 
identify excerpts from the text that constitute a complete thought (Corbin & Strauss, 2015), 
using a software known as Atlas. ti; these excerpts were then translated into codes. The 
analysis from the professors’ data yielded 94 codes, while that of alumni yielded 54 codes. The 
codes from the open-ended questionnaires were triangulated with the Department’s 
curriculum (gotten from the department handbook) and condensed into themes for further 
analysis and discussion (Constas, 1992; Creswell, 2013). The researchers were reflexive about 
their perspectives and biases while presenting participants' meanings of the phenomenon as 
accurately as possible (Creswell, 2014). To further reduce subjective interpretations, the 
researchers engaged in intercoder reliability by selecting a “blind” review coder who checked 
for consistency between code definitions and the data (Marshall & Rossman, 2016). We also 
asked some of the participants to review and confirm the generated themes to make sure it 
was in line with their response (Marshall & Rossman, 2016). Participants’ names were 
represented with pseudonyms for confidentiality. 
 



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Findings 
 
Three themes emerged from the data analysis: (a) The Department's curriculum 
design/development.; (b) Stakeholder’s consultation; and (c) Principles considered while 
designing the curriculum. Furthermore, the third theme (i.e., the principles considered while 
designing the curriculum) was divided into 3 sub-themes: learning objectives, student learning 
needs, and industrial needs. 
 
Table 1 
 
Summary of Themes and Sub-Themes 
Themes/Sub-themes Sample quotes 
1. The Department's curriculum design/development 
 

“The department also has a mandate 
in conducting cutting-edge research in 
agricultural management…” 

2. Stakeholder’s consultation “The curriculum initially undergoes the 
review of the curriculum development 
committee before it is sent to the NUC 
for approval …” 

3. Principles considered 
while designing the 
curriculum 

3a. Learning objectives “The focus and scope of the discipline 
[i.e., department] are obtained from 
other similar departments …” 

3b. Student learning needs “The administrative needs of 
graduates were considered in 
developing the instructional plan…" 

3c. Industrial needs. “The department determined the 
needs of the industries by interacting 
with the industries in 2012…” 

 
The Department Curriculum Design/Development 
The Department’s curriculum was contained in the Department’s handbook by Fapojuwo 
(2015). The Department’s curriculum showed that the Department was established in 2009. It 
offers a Bachelor of Science degree (B.Sc.) and a master’s degree (MSc.) in Agricultural 
Administration (a branch of agricultural education) (Fapojuwo, 2015). The Department’s 
curriculum stated that the University was the first University to establish the Department of 
Agricultural Administration in Nigeria, and it is the only University in Africa that runs this 
program both at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels (Fapojuwo, 2015). However, the 
postgraduate level was not established until the 2014/2015 session. The Department is known 
for its research and instruction in agricultural management, administration, and gender studies 
(Fapojuwo, 2015). As mentioned by Professor Sodiq, “The department also has a mandate in 
conducting cutting-edge research in agricultural management, administration, and gender 
studies and makes such knowledge available for relevant stakeholders in making managerial 
and policy decisions.” 



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The establishment of the Department was due to the need for administrative skills in the 
agricultural sector in Nigeria, recognized as a skill gap that the Department intends to bridge 
(Fapojuwo, 2015). According to one of the alumni, Joe, “It is a unique department with the core 
values of training students and helps bridge the gaps of organizational challenges in human 
resources, program planning, and training and development.” Another alumnus, Nelson, 
echoed this point: “This is a department with the core value to bridge the gap of human 
resources aspect of agriculture in terms of training and development, conflict resolution in the 
organization, monitoring, and evaluation, to mention a few.” 
 
Also, the Department collaborated with other Agriculture Departments to engage students in a 
one-year farming practice organized by the Community-based Farming Scheme. 
As stated by Professor Sodiq:  

[The program involves] a farm year practical called the Community-based Farming 
Scheme where they [i.e., students] are attached to different agricultural farms to gain 
practical experience for 12 months, after which examinations are taken to test their 
skills and practical knowledge. 

These farms are not public industries and are owned by the school in different rural locations as 
opportunities for students to engage in agriculture experiential learning. The annual farm 
practicum was established to prepare students for farm activities in the crop and livestock 
section of the University. 
 
The findings also revealed that all the professors responded to only one aspect of the 
curriculum: the syllabus. According to Prideaux (2003), several believed the curriculum to be 
just a syllabus. However, the curriculum covers beyond just the syllabus. The curriculum 
comprises the content, the evaluation process, the teaching and learning strategies, and the 
assessment process (Prideaux 2003). 
 
The Stakeholders Consultation 
Findings revealed that there was a detailed process followed when designing the curriculum. 
There was a university committee in charge of the curriculum design. In describing the process 
of designing the curriculum, Professor Obi stated: 

There are processes involved in the university to develop a curriculum. The University 
has a curriculum development committee which the curriculum has to pass through 
before approval. After approval, the University Senate gave the final approval before 
the implementation took off. The Nigerian University Commission also had input in 
ensuring the relevance of the curriculum before accrediting the department. 

 
The professors explained in detail the input of the Nigerian Government in the process of 
designing the Department's curriculum. They mentioned that the National University 
Commission (NUC), established in 1962 by the Nigerian Government, was mandated to 
promote and ensure quality higher education in Nigeria. Also, Professor Afonja claimed that 
after certifying the curriculum, the NUC's accreditation team reviews it every five years, using 
the benchmark academic standard (usually known as B-mark). Every five years, the NUC 



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compares the implemented curriculum of the Department against the benchmark academic 
standard to see if the Department has achieved its goals. However, the curriculum initially 
undergoes the review of the curriculum development committee before it is sent to the NUC 
for approval.  
 
All the professors also claimed to be involved in gathering information on the curriculum 
content for the courses offered. However, the development of the curriculum was not limited 
to the professors, as many alumni claimed to have been involved in various parts of the 
development of the curriculum. One of the pioneering alumni, Luke, stated: "As a stakeholder 
in the department, I advocated for an all-inclusive administrative course to enrich the delivery 
of courses to students, which was implemented about four years after." The same alumnus also 
reported participating in organizing seminars to showcase the Department’s role in bridging the 
skill gap between Agricultural graduates and managerial demands in the Nigerian workforce. 
These findings reveal that both the professors and the students were involved in the design of 
the curriculum. 
 
Principles Considered While Designing the Curriculum 
Three sub-themes, which represented the principles considered while designing the curriculum, 
emerged from the data. These included the learning objectives, student learning needs, and 
industrial needs. 
 
The Learning Objectives 
Many of the professors revealed that the curriculum was designed based on the Department’s 
learning objectives, which were developed in line with the Department’s vision and purpose. 
However, the learning objectives were not limited to the Department but were modeled upon 
other universities across Africa. Professors Afonja captured this, who stated: “The focus and 
scope of the discipline [i.e., department] are obtained from other similar departments in 
universities across Africa.” In line with this, one of the professors mentioned that the 
"department engages in exchange programs with a University in Ghana.” Professor Afonja 
further emphasized this point: 

The development of the learning objectives was further fine-tuned with the aid of an 
exchange program between the [University] and the University from Ghana (the latter 
runs a postgraduate program in agricultural administration) in 2012 with the 
sponsorship of the International Association of Universities (IAU) in France. 

 
Also, some professors stated that some of the learning objectives were developed from the 
literature. Professor Sodiq mentioned that the learning objectives were developed to promote 
“the capacity building [of students, to] provide a satisfactory service to the public and private 
organization." 
 
Many professors also reported that learning objectives had improved their teaching. As 
explained by one of the professors, Obi: "The objectives have helped to influence my teaching 
style to some extent, changing my style from being teacher-centered to student-centered." 
Moreover, professors reported a change in research due to utilizing learning objectives. 



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According to Professor Obi: "My research focus was greatly influenced, [changing] from 
research on rural sociology to management and human resource focus area." Another 
professor, Afonja stated: "My internalization of the department's objectives has given me the 
impetus to consistently stick to the teaching styles and maintain research focus that is in 
tandem with the objective.” 
 
Student Learning Needs 
Many of the professors reportedly stated that the Department put the learning needs of the 
students into consideration when designing the curriculum. According to Professor Obi: 

The student’s learning needs to make them employable are group dynamics, 
psychology, ICT, conflict management, gender mainstreaming, human resource 
management, leadership, e.t.c. All these were considered in the development of 
instructional materials at all levels, especially at the final year stage. 

Another professor, Otenaike, added that "the administrative needs of graduates were 
considered in developing the instructional plan." 
 
When asked how the learning needs of the students were accessed, Professor Sodiq reported 
that the learning needs of the students were accessed "through seminars, interactions, tests, 
examinations." Another professor, Afonja stated, "the needs of the graduates are determined 
by the filling of needs assessment form every semester." Moreover, one of the professors, 
Otenaike mentioned that the Department goes beyond the school by using "records of 
graduates who left the department to get feedback from them, which are useful information on 
needs." 
 
Professors were also asked how often they review their syllabus. All the professors reported 
that the syllabus is reviewed every five years to reflect the current learning needs of students. 
However, according to Finch and Crunkilton (1993), the syllabus review should be done on both 
a short-term and long-term basis. 
 
Meanwhile, when Alumni were asked about the syllabus meeting their learning needs, their 
response was not totally in line with the professors. While some stated that the syllabus met 
their learning needs well, others were less positive in their remarks. One of the Alumni, Luke 
stated it met his needs "averagely well." Another alumnus, Rachel said: "It meets my needs to 
an appreciable length. Though I started my department course in my final year (500 level)." This 
statement suggests that Alumni needs were not adequately met because they are only allowed 
to take courses designed by the Department's curriculum in their final year. 
 
Industry Needs 
The professors identified various ways the Department attempts to determine industry needs. 
Some professors noted that the Department has an ongoing working relationship with industry 
partners. One of the professors, Sodiq, stated: 

[It is a] constant interaction with the industries through student attachments and 
practical training at the 400 level. This helps to determine the needs of the industries 



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and equally dovetail with the modification of the curriculum to meet the changing needs 
of the industries and produce graduates that will be employable. 

Moreover, Professor Afonja echoed this point:  
[The industry’s needs were determined] by going on a familiarization tour of all the 
major agricultural establishments in the Southwest of Nigeria with the underlying intent 
of determining the needs of the industries and consequently accommodating such 
needs to gear the department curriculum towards addressing them. 

 
However, Professor Afonja did not describe this relationship as ongoing but rather as an event 
that took place in 2012. He stated: “The department determined the needs of the industries by 
interacting with the industries in 2012 as part of the exchange program between the 
[University], and the University from Ghana.”  
 
Many professors mentioned that the practical farm program was instrumental to learning 
about the needs of the industry. The farm practical year is an internship program where 
students are assigned to farms for one year in their final year at the Department. In addition to 
learning about the industry needs, this internship program serves as a work experience for 
students. However, as one of the professors, Otenaike, mentioned, this program does not 
provide sufficient work experience. The farms do not adequately reflect the wide range of 
potential industries that graduates are to work on after graduation.  
 
Findings revealed that professors generally favored increased industry partnership despite the 
farm practical program. One of the professors, Sodiq stated: “there is a curriculum review going 
on now to ensure that the students spend about three months in the industry.” Another 
professor, Afonja, while echoing the need for increased industry partnership, stated: “The 
University is putting an arrangement in place to incorporate more industry visits into the 
existing farm practical period.” 
 
Findings also revealed that professors determined industry needs through personal research. 
Moreover, findings showed that partnership with the industry might have an unintended 
outcome of maintaining students’ interest in the program. According to Professor Afonja: “they 
are also exposed to excursions to the industries once in a year at least to sustain their interest 
in the course.” 
 
Professors also mentioned that the Department adopts the college curriculum for the first four 
years of the five-year bachelor’s degree. The Department’s curriculum becomes effective only 
in year five (final year). As a result, the curriculum does not fully meet the needs of the 
students, and it is difficult for students to be specialists in their field.  
 
Moreover, the current study explored how the curriculum might have helped alumni in their 
respective jobs. To begin, alumni were asked if they worked in the agriculture industry. 
Surprisingly, all the alumni indicated they currently work in non-agricultural sectors, except for 
one, Alex whose work contains some elements of agriculture. When asked if he works in an 



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agriculture-related organization, Alex stated: "not fully, but there is an aspect of the 
organization that deals with Agriculture." 
 
Also, all alumni, when asked whether the skills they gained from the Department were useful in 
their current jobs, all answered ‘no.’ When asked what skills they wished had been taught in 
their programs, one of them, Luke, stated: "Industrial relations and Nigerian Labor Law." 
Another alumnus, Daniel, stated: "I would have the desire that the department could include 
enterprise management and the inclusion of leadership as a separate course with a focus on 
sustainable development of the Nation and Africa as a whole." These findings showed that 
students’ learning needs were not fully met. 
 

Conclusions, Discussion, and Recommendations 
 
One of the major purposes of this study was to determine whether the curriculum aligns with 
the needs of the industry. First, we found that the main reason for establishing the Department 
was to fill the administrative skill gap in the agriculture industry, which is the program idea 
upon which the objectives are based (Cafarella, 2002). However, from the findings, there was 
no mention of the direct involvement of industry stakeholders in the planning of the 
curriculum. This is surprising since the Department’s purpose revolves around meeting the 
needs of the industry. Including the industry stakeholders in the negotiation process might have 
been beneficial. Also, the findings revealed a discrepancy between the response of the 
professors and that of the alumni. While professors believed that students’ learning needs were 
considered and met, the alumni maintained that the Department did not meet their learning 
needs adequately. The alumni proposed new courses that would have helped in their current 
jobs, including industrial relations and Nigerian labor law, enterprise management, and 
leadership. The most interesting part of these findings is that all the desired courses mentioned 
by the alumni are simply not agricultural-related. This shortcoming supports Offorma and 
Onyia’s (2011) argument about the Nigerian institution lacking a multidisciplinary model 
approach to curriculum that prepares the students for the needs of the industry. 
 
The alumni desired to have the specialized courses in the curriculum available from the first 
year rather than the final year of their program. The current structure of offering technical 
courses only in the last year means that students can only take departmental courses for two 
semesters. The following recommendations are based on the finding of this phenomenological 
study: 
• Continuous careful review and update of the curriculum with the current industry needs 

(Chugh et al., 2017). 
• Further replication of the study should be done in other major agricultural institutions in 

Nigeria to investigate the degree to which the curriculum meets the needs of the students 
and industries. Moreover, future studies should explore the extent to which professors’ 
teaching and learning strategies prepare the students for the labor force.  

 



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In conclusion, the alumni learning needs are not being met, as most of the alumni still wished 
that they had taken some courses that would have better prepared them for their current jobs. 
From the findings, the professors are fully aware of the skill gap between the industry and the 
educational system by mentioning an ongoing curriculum review. However, the professors did 
not share the full details of the review. It is a five-year program; therefore, the courses offered 
by the Department must be spread out across the entire duration of the program (i.e., five 
years, as opposed to only the final year). Taking the Department’s courses in only one year (i.e., 
two semesters) is not enough time for the student to develop the administrative skills needed 
for the workforce. There is a need for the student to be intensively taught practical ways to use 
the managerial skills in the labor force (Offorma & Onyia, 2011).  
 

Author Contribution 
 
Helen Ajao: Contributed to writing, collection of data, analysis of data, interpretation of the 
result, design of the study, the conceptualization of the research, and draft manuscript 
preparation. 
 
Dr. Dami Alegbeleye: contributed to the study's conceptualization, proofreading, analysis of the 
data and design of the study, and draft manuscript preparation. 
 
Dr. Donna Westfall-Rudd: Supervised and proofread the research, reviewed the literature, and 
designed the study. 
 
All authors approved the final version of the manuscript. 
 

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