COMPARATIVE PARTIAL COMPETENCY BASED TRAINING: A CASE STUDY OF ITS APPLICATION TO THE STATISTICS PROGRAM

Abstract

In Ghana, the traditional University system is designed to give the learner a sound basis to be able to chart a career path after the initial training. The Polytechnics, on the other hand, have been set up to give its students practical oriented training which provides manpower, largely, for the middle level. In recent times a competency based training regime has been on the lips of every educationist as it is seen as a panacea to churning out graduates who are already prepared for the job market. In Accra polytechnic, competency based training has so far been run in two departments – Mechanical Engineering and Fashion Design. It is clear that there have been some challenges with the adoption of this training approach. However, such a laudable approach to learning must not be dumped but the challenges overcome so as to replicate in the other programs of study in the institution. This paper suggests that a fully competency based training for an entire program may be fraught with several challenges. A better option will be to apply competency based training to aspects of a curriculum. A case study of the Design and Analysis of Experiments content of the Statistics Curriculum has been practically analyzed and the results show that students were more competent in the learning outcomes using this approach than the traditional method of teaching and learning. The experiment was designed as a three factor study and analyzed using ANOVA techniques.

Keywords: Competence, Learning outcomes, Polytechnic, ANOVA.