Effects of Self-help Guide for Repair and Maintenance of Domestic Electrical Appliances on Apprentices of National Directorate of Employment in Taraba State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study aimed at determining the effects of self-help guide for repair and maintenance of
domestic electrical appliances on apprentices of National Directorate for Employment in
Taraba State. Three specific purposes, three research questions and one null hypothesis were
postulated to guide the conduct of the study. non-randomized pre-test, post-test quasiexperimental design was adopted in this study. The population was 391 comprising 157
registered electrical/electronic certified technicians with at least Trade Test III certificate
operating in Taraba State. Nineteen technical college teachers who major in
electrical/electronic education and 215 newly recruited apprentices under the National
Directorate of Employment in Taraba State formed population. Systematic sampling technique
was used to draw 113 registered electrical/electronic certified technicians, all the nineteen
technical colleges teachers and two intact clusters of 26 and 23 NDE newly recruited
apprentices were purposively selected. A 197 item researcher-developed instrument titled
“Effects of Self-Help Guide for Repair and Maintenance of Domestic Electrical Appliances
Questionnaire” was used to elicit data for the study. The instrument was validated by three
experts. One from Industrial Technology Education Department, University of Uyo, two from
from Technology and Vocational Education Department, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka. A
reliability index of 0.88 was obtained using the Cronbach’s Alpha procedure. The instrument
was administered and data were collected in-situ. The data obtained were analysed using mean
values to answer the research questions while Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to
test the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed 12 safety
precautions and 14 tools for carrying out repair and maintenance of domestic electrical
appliances. The study also revealed that there was a significant difference in performance of
newly recruited NDE apprentices who used and those who did not use the self-help guide for
practical repair and maintenance during the experiment. It was recommended that the selfhelp guide should be adopted for use by users of electrical appliances in homes to mitigate
high cost of engaging professional repairers and that workshops and seminars should be
organized by the National Directorate of Employment and related government agencies to
enlighten electrical repair and maintenance trainers and other vocational and technical
teachers in order to improve their knowledge and skills on the use of self-help guide for repair
and maintenance of domestic electrical appliances.