This study developed an Employability Skills Framework for Automobile Technology Education graduates of Nigerian Colleges of Education. Guided by four research questions, the study adopted a descriptive survey and the Delphi technique. The population comprised automobile technology lecturers, final-year students, and automotive industry professionals in North-Central Nigeria. Using stratified random sampling, 384 respondents (96 lecturers, 192 students, and 96 industry professionals) were selected from six Colleges of Education. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire and a Delphi protocol. Five experts validated the instruments, and reliability coefficients of 0.89 (Cronbach's Alpha), 0.82 (Cohen's Kappa), and 0.85 (test-retest) confirmed their adequacy. Framework development followed six phases: needs assessment, component identification through a three-round Delphi process, framework construction, expert validation, pilot testing, and finalization. Data were analysed using mean and standard deviation. The findings revealed fifteen core employability skills required by Automobile Technology Education graduates (grand mean = 4.54, SD = 0.65). The developed framework comprises six domains: Technical Competence, Cognitive Skills, Interpersonal Skills, Personal Attributes, Digital Literacy, and Entrepreneurial Skills, encompassing eighteen competencies that achieved expert consensus. The framework significantly enhanced graduate employability, as the experimental group recorded a mean gain of 23.4 points compared with 6.3 points for the control group (t = 14.36, p < 0.001, d = 2.78). Ten implementation guidelines were also identified (grand mean = 4.55, SD = 0.68). The study recommends integrating the identified employability skills into NCE Automobile Technology Education programmes and adopting the framework through systematic curriculum implementation and lecturer capacity development
Jebba et al. (2026) studied this question.