Innovative Management of Technical and Vocational Education for Attainment of Sustainable Development Goals in Technical Schools in Rivers State

The study investigated the innovative ways that technical and vocational education can be managed for the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in technical schools in Rivers State. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. Three (3) research questions and three (3) hypotheses guided the study. The population of the study consisted of 5000 students from 4 Government Technical and Vocational Schools in Rivers State. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select a sample size of 500 out of 5000 students. A Self – structured questionnaire titled “Innovative Management of Technical and vocational Education Students Questionnaire (IMTVESQ)†was used to elicit responses from the respondents. Cronbach Alpha method was used to establish a reliability index of 0.78. Mean, standard deviation and rank order were used to answer research questions while Z-test was used to test the hypotheses at a significance level of 0.05. The findings of the study revealed among others; that the contributions of technical and vocational education towards the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in technical schools in Rivers State include: promotion of skill development, employment generation, provision of training and capacity building for teachers, poverty reduction in the society through food production and improved standard of living, raising employers of labour, instead of job seekers etc. It was concluded that the provision of quality education and adequate funding according to reasonable percentage suggested by UNESCO from the total budget, expected to serve as impetus for technical and vocational education teachers/ lecturers towards becoming more productive in the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Rivers State’s technical schools. It was recommended that Government should evolve more policy directive and implement the existing ones to the later for the needed change. Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) should also be more involved, investing maximum resources in the educational system; in order to encourage skill development and entrepreneurship spirit among youths, and to improve motivational strategies among teachers/ lecturers in technical schools in Rivers State.