Impact of internship training on faculty of agriculture undergraduates of the obafemi awolowo university, ile-ife, Nigeria
Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Sociology, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria; Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Sociology, Faculty of Agriculture, Obafemi Awolowo University O.A.U., P.O. Box 1979, Postal Code 220005,
Ajayi, A.O., Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Sociology, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Sociology, Faculty of Agriculture, Obafemi Awolowo University O.A.U., P.O. Box 1979, Postal Code 220005, Ile-Ife, Nigeria; Okorie, V.O., Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Sociology, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria; Yusuf, O.J., Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Sociology, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria
This study assessed the impact of internship training on undergraduates of agriculture in the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. The job aspirations and attitudes of preinternship and postinternship undergraduates toward studying agriculture and toward participating in internship training were compared and the students' preferred courses and reasons for studying agriculture were identified. A multistage sampling procedure was employed to select an equal number of respondents from both preinternship and postinternship students; a pretested and validated structured questionnaire was used to elicit qualitative information from 130 respondents; frequency distribution, percentage, mean, and standard deviation were used to describe the data; one-way-ANOVA test was used to test the hypotheses in order to make deductions from the data. The result of ANOVA revealed that at P 0.05 significance level, there were significant differences in the preinternship and postinternship students' attitudes toward studying agriculture and toward participating in internship training. However, at P 0.05 significance level, there was no significant difference in the job aspirations of preinternship and postinternship students. It was, therefore, concluded that the internship training changed only the attitude of postinternship students toward studying agriculture and participating in internship training, with no significant impact on the job aspirations of the students. Hence, the study recommended overhauling the internship training program through adequate funding, logistics, and curriculum revision; so as to enable it to attain its goals and promote improvement and retention of educated and able-bodied youth in the agricultural sector. © 2008 by The Haworth Press. All rights reserved.