Students’ Perceptions on Choice and Retention of Engineering Technology as a Career Course. (A Study of Federal Polytechnic Bali)

Abstract

The aim of the study was to determine the students’ perception on the choice and retention of
Engineering Technology as a Career Course. The study was guided by two objectives and two research
questions. The study adopted Survey as the research design. Which was carried out in Federal
polytechnic Bali, Taraba State. The population of the study was 343, which is comprised of all students
of Agric. and Bio-Environmental Engineering, Building Technology, Civil engineering, Computer
engineering, and Electrical/Electronics engineering departments. There was no sampling technique as
all the population was managed as samples for this study. Structured questionnaire was used in data
collection for the study which was validated experts; Cronbach Alpha coefficient formula was used in
determining the internal consistency of the instrument, which gave a coefficient value of 0.78, indicated
that it is reliable. The data collected was analyzed using mean and standard deviation with the help of
Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software, version 22. The result reveals that all the
respondents themselves have chosen engineering as a course before admitted, engineering is the career
they wanted since from their secondary schools with the total support of their parents/guardians. They
also found engineering as best course for career take-up, showed their happiness being as engineering
students. It was concluded that Students follows their interests as they were encouraged by their
parents/guardians since from their early years. It is also recommended that there is need for special
counselling services to encourage the students since from their childhood years, as they understands of
the societal needs of becoming an engineers, Government should provide all manpower and training
facilities needed for training engineers in the tertiary institutions of learning.