Techno-pedagogy and Graduates’ Employability in Cameroon State Universities

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume III, Issue X, October 2019 | ISSN 2454–6186

Techno-pedagogy and Graduates’ Employability in Cameroon State Universities

Apongnde Pasker (PhD)

Faculty of Education, University of Yaounde 1(Cameroon)

Abstract: – This study sets to demonstrate the place of techno-pedagogy on graduates’ employability in Cameroon State universities. It stems from an empirical observation according to which this 21st Century pedagogic innovation is largely neglected in the public higher education arena. It is a survey; involving the random sampling technique. Krejcie and Morgan (1970)’s model was used to select 426 informants among Cameroon State university graduates, Lecturers and economic operators. Data was collected via questionnaires and the descriptive statistical and content analysis approaches were used to analyse and interpret the said data. The latter was done with the help of SPSS and Becker (1994)’s Human Capital theory and Rogers (2003)’s Diffusion of Innovations theory respectively. Findings revealed that techno-pedagogy greatly enhances graduates’ employability in Cameroon State universities; for, according to informants, techno-pedagogy induces creativity and self-reliance (86.6%), multi-skilling and tasking (79.8%), professional excellence and productivity (95.5%) and finally, job flexibility and mobility among graduates (94.6%). The adoption of this pedagogical innovation is however marred by shortcomings at the levels of logistics, infrastructure, policies, users’ skills and motivation; a situation that warrants remedial measures. In effect, some solutions for the effective adoption of techno-pedagogy in Cameroon State universities are proposed.

Key words: Technology; Pedagogy; Techno-pedagogy; Graduate and Employability.

I. INTRODUCTION

Addressing the employability crisis faced by higher education graduates in Cameroon today requires revisiting the mechanisms through which knowledge is disseminated to them while in school or university. This is so because the manner in which knowledge is imparted has an enormous impact on learners’ skills and attitudes. A sound pedagogical system today is that which is technology-mediated. It must reflect and respond to the needs and aspirations of individual learners, countries, the global population and the job world at large (Knight and Yorke, 2004). This is imperative; given that the gap between the training that young people receive from school and their ability to grab gainful employment is increasingly wide.

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