STRATEGIES FOR PROMOTING SYNERGY BETWEEN BUSINESS  EDUCATION AND INDUSTRY FOR SUSTAINABLE ECONOMY IN NIGERIA

N. Onyemaobi; Stella C.  Amobi; Ngozi L.  Nwosu

N. Onyemaobi FACULTY OF EDUCATION, DEPARTMENT OF TECHNOLOGY AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION NNAMDI AZIKIWE UNIVERSITY AWKA
Stella C. Amobi FACULTY OF EDUCATION, DEPARTMENT OF TECHNOLOGY AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION NNAMDI AZIKIWE UNIVERSITY AWKA
Ngozi L. Nwosu FACULTY OF EDUCATION, DEPARTMENT OF TECHNOLOGY AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION NNAMDI AZIKIWE UNIVERSITY AWKA

Keywords: Strategies, Synergy, Business Education, Industry, Sustainable Economy

Abstract

The study determined strategies for promoting synergy between business education and industry for sustainable economy in Nigeria. Two research questions guided the study and two hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The study was carried out in Anambra State. The population of the study comprised 108 business educators from the tertiary institutions and 1,250 managers of Medium Scale enterprises in Anambra State. The sample for the study was 358 business educators and managers of SMEs. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire developed by the researchers and validated by three experts in of education. The test of reliability on the instrument using Cronbach Alpha reliability method yielded coefficient values of 0.80 and 0.82 for the two clusters with an overall reliability coefficient of 0.81. Data collected from the respondents were analyzed with mean, standard deviation and t-test. Findings revealed that establishing regular interactive sessions by business education lecturers and industry specialists, creating social networking platforms for interactions between the school and industry as well as forming occupational committees with lecturers and industry experts would help promote synergy between the school and industry. Findings also showed that poor leadership commitment and funding was a challenge to synergistic relationship between the school and industry. The researchers recommended among others that the Federal and state government should adopt a regulatory framework for the institutionalization of collaborative or public private partnership (PPP) programmes for business education programmes in tertiary institutions in Nigeria.