Abstract:
The work was focused on identification of work-skill needs of secondary school graduates in pineapple production for poverty reduction in South East, Nigeria. Four research questions guided the study and four hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. Population for the study was 301 made up of 254 Agricultural Extension Agents and 47 registered Pineapple Farmers in the area of study. Sample for the study was 123 made up of all the 76 Agricultural Extension Agents who specialized in pineapple production in the area of study and the entire 47 registered Pineapple Farmers. Questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents. The questionnaire was validated by three experts. Cronbach alpha reliability method was used to determine the internal consistency of the qu estionnaire which yielded a co-efficient value of 0.84. All the one hundred and twenty three copies of the questionnaire administered were retrieved. Data collected were analyzed using weighted mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions while t-test statistic was used to test the hypotheses of no significant difference. It was found out by the study that 16 skill cluster items in planning and marketing of fruits in pineapple production, 10 -in pre-nursery operations, 8-in nursery operations and 10-in plantation establishment and harvesting of fruits were required by secondary school graduates in pineapple production. It was therefore recommended that the 44 skill cluster items identified by this study be packaged into a training program for empowering secondary school graduates in pineapple production enterprises in South East
Nigeria.
