Women Perception of Vocational Skills Acquisition for Socio-Economic Empowerment in Niger and Kwara States’ Literacy Programmes, Nigeria
Abstract

Empowerment and self-reliance for women have been at the centre of the agitations for gender balance in Africa. Women are largely marginalised, and obvious gender disparity exists opportunity for education school enrolment and completion rates in most African countries, to which Nigeria belongs. Efforts to address this shortfall led to the adoption of adult literacy and vocational skill acquisition programmes to build the capacity of women and out-of-school adults. Training contents were developed and centres set up across the country, but most of the women in the programme are neither financially empowered nor self-reliant.Therefore, the study examined the women’s perception of vocational skills acquisition for socio-economic empowerment and self reliance in Niger and Kwara states. The research employed a descriptive design of survey type with (532) participants from the selected adult literacy centers in Niger and Kwara states. Two research questions were raised and data collected through a questionnaire were analyzed using mean, standard deviation, and simple frequency. The result showed that different types of literacy and vocational skills acquisition programmes were available for women’s empowerment and self-reliance in the adult literacy centres in Niger and Kwara states. The result also revealed that the majority of women agreed that the vocational skills acquired have helped them to become employable and selfreliant.
Recommendations were made on how to improve the existing training structure

Citation
Eziafa Rita Izamah, Olajide, M. F. PhD., Dahiru Abdullahi, DanAsabe, PhD. Women Perception of Vocational Skills Acquisition for Socio-Economic Empowerment in Niger and Kwara States’ Literacy Programmes, Nigeria. International Journal of Continuing and Non-Formal Education (IJCNFE), 11, 390-403.