Skills-based infrastructure and human capital development: interrogating Ebonyi State community and social development agency intervention

Abstract

Relatively human capital development index in Ebonyi State is low with dilapidated school infrastructure facilities. This necessitated intervention of the government through her agencies to address human capital development challenges of the state. The scope of the study cuts across six selected local government areas in the state with a population of 1,488,900 being the 2020 projected population of the selected local government areas. Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient through SPSS version 21 was used to test the hypotheses formulated for the study. Findings revealed that there is significant positive relationship between EBCSDA’s provision of classroom blocks and improvement on the quality of primary and secondary education provided for the pupils and students in the state, between 2010-2020; EB-CSDA’s vocational training centres have significantly enhanced entrepreneurial skills of youths in the selected local government areas; EB-CSDA’s has not significantly assisted indigent students to acquire primary and secondary education in the study area within the period under review; etc. The implication of the above is that the agency has contributed significantly to human capital development in the state, but a lot still needs to be done especially in the area of granting of scholarships to indigent students. The researcher therefore, recommended among others that Ebonyi State government should increase budgetary allocation to the EBCSDA to further enhance her capacity towards provision of skills-based infrastructure for sustainable human capital development efforts in the state.