Abstract

This study focused on technology competencies required by secondary school graduates in maintenance, servicing and repairing of electronic machines for agribusiness occupations to minimize wastage. Three research questions and three hypotheses guided the study. The study made use of survey and functions of industry designs. It was carried out in Enugu State, Nigeria. The population for the study was 73, made up of 13 teachers of computer education and 60 computer and phone technicians. A 47 skill item questionnaire was used for data collection. Five experts validated the instrument. Split half technique and Pearson product moment correlation method were used to determine the internal consistency of the instrument. A reliability coefficient of 0.86 was obtained. Seventy three copies of the instrument were administered to the respondents. All the copies were retrieved and analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions and t-test statistic to test the hypotheses. The study found out that 19 competencies in maintenance, servicing and repairing of computer, 15 competencies in maintenance, servicing and repairing of internet and 13 competencies in maintenance, servicing and repairing of phone were required by secondary school graduates for success in e-waste management in agribusiness. It was therefore recommended that the findings of this study be utilized by skill acquisition centres to train secondary school graduates for employment in maintenance, servicing and repairing of computer, internet and phone.

Key words: Agribusiness, e-waste, e-waste management, technology competencies, training.