Effects of Grinding Machine Operation on Unemployment Reduction Among Youths in Rivers State

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the entrepreneurial skills required by young entrepreneurs for effective operation and effects of grinding machine operation on reduction of unemployment rate in Rivers State. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. Two research questions to guide the study; while one null hypothesis was formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance and 100 degrees of freedom. The entire population of 102 respondents consisting of 91 grinding machine operators and 11 technicians were used for the study. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire which contained 18 items. The questionnaire items were face validated by experts. The internal consistency of the questionnaire was determined using Cronbach Alpha method and coefficient of 0.82 was obtained. Data obtained from the administration of the instrument was analyzed using mean, standard deviation to answer the research question and z-test was used to test the null hypotheses. The findings of the study revealed that all the 18 items for grinding machine operation, requires entrepreneurial skills in operating machine safely and also helped in the reduction of unemployment rate in Rivers State. The findings on hypotheses revealed that there was no significant difference in the mean ratings of the two groups of respondents on the skills required by operators and technicians. It was therefore stated that, the findings of this study recommended that Government should make provision for means of empowering young school leavers, youth, women and young entrepreneur, Government should collaborate with NGOs for adequate and more effective entrepreneurial skill training and development, this will make the empowerment scheme more effective, Nigeria local Content policy should be fully implemented to encourage individuals’ operations.