INFLUENCE OF STUDENTS’ INDUSTRIAL WORK EXPERIENCE SCHEME ON ACCOUNTING STUDENTS' ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN COLLEGES OF EDUCATION IN KOGI STATE

Abstract

Many students struggle to demonstrate necessary skills in their academic disciplines despite participating in students industrial work experience scheme (SIWES) programme. This discrepancy highlights the need for a well-planned SIWES system to address the shortcomings. To address these challenges, there is therefore the need for a well-planned and executed students industrial work experience scheme system that can begin to address these shortcomings. One research question and hypothesis guided the study. The study adopted a mixed-method research approach. The population of the study was 480 accounting students in three Colleges of Education in Kogi state, Nigeria. Census survey was adopted by the sampling technique. However, for the qualitative aspect of the study, a purposive sampling technique was adopted in selecting from the studies population. A structured questionnaire titled "Influence of Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme on Accounting Students' Academic Performance Questionnaire" (ISIWESASAPQ) was used to gather quantitative data. In-depth one-on-one personal Interview was the instrument used to gather the qualitative data. Mean and standard deviation were used to analyze the data collected to answer the research questions. Hypotheses were tested using independent samples t-test.at 0.05 level of significance. The study revealed that Students industrial work experience scheme positively influences accounting students ' academic performance (mean 3.36, SD 0.80), there was a significant difference between the mean response scores of male and female respondents regarding the influence of Students industrial work experience scheme on the academic performance of accounting students (t₂₅₅ 19.37, P<0.05). Based on the findings of the study, it was concluded that Students industrial work experience scheme can improve accounting Students' academic performance. It was recommended among others that there is a need for curriculum planners to provide enough activities of students’ industrial work experience scheme and other work-based learning programmes in the curriculum to help improve students’ academic performance.

Keywords: Students industrial work experience scheme, Accounting, Academic Performance