The Skills Gap Between the Ordinary Level Textile Technology and Design Learners and the Textile Construction Industry

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to investigate the skills gap between the Ordinary level Textile Technology and Design learners and the textile construction industry. Determining skills level of TTD students which the textiles industry deems necessary for one to be successful in that industry as well as if the TTD learners possess these skills was another objective of this study. The population of the study consisted of five secondary schools, 5 TTD teachers and 150 learners in Mutegesa cluster in Featherstone. The population also included three managers form textile construction companies in Gweru. In this study the sample was made up of three TTD teachers from three schools, twenty seven learners and two managers from textile manufacturing companies. The purposive sampling technique was used to select the participating teachers and managers. Data were collected through questionnaires, interviews and classroom observations. The thematic approach was used to analyse the data. The findings revealed that employability of TTD learners in the textile industry is dependent not on mastery of problem solving, critical thinking, communication skills, technical skills, collaborative skills, entrepreneurial skills, creativity, innovation and practical skills. It was ascertained that while TTD learners are generally competent, they were not excellently competent in the following skills: critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, innovation and entrepreneurial skills. Closing the skills gap requires education and industry to build meaningful partnerships that expose learners to industry through work based learning programs and the use of active learning methodologies in well-equipped classrooms to ensure that graduates possess the skill sets desired in the current workforce and beyond. It was recommended that schools should foster and enabling learning environments that help learners to acquire and develop skills relevant to the textile industry as well as adopt assessment strategies that are geared towards measuring and tracking the development of employability skills that are now critical in a complex global environment.