Digital Skills Possessed by Clothing and Textile Industry Workers and Existing Government Support in the Development of the Sector in Kogi State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the digital skills of textile and clothing industry
workers in Kogi State Nigeria. Three research questions guided the study. The area
of the study was Kogi State North Central Nigeria. The population for the study
consisted of 1000 clothing and textile industry workers in Kogi State. A sample of
202 workers was purposively selected to respond to questionnaire items. This
study adopted a descriptive survey design. Digital Skills of Textile Workers
(DSTW) was used as an instrument. The instrument was subjected to face and
content validation by three experts from the Department of Education in Kogi
State University Anyigba (K.S.U.). The reliability of the instrument was further
subjected to pilot testing using 30 industries in Kaduna that were not part of the
study. An internal consistency of 0.76 was obtained. The internal consistency was
estimated using Cronbach alpha which yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.78. The
data was analyzed using mean and standard deviation. The findings of this study
revealed that the digital skills proficiency in the workforce of the textile and
clothing industry in Kogi State is moderate (mean = 3.03). The findings also
revealed that one of the challenges of textile workers was the cost of modern
machines which made some workers resort to manual tools (mean = 3.44). The
study established that government support of digital skills in the textile and
clothing industry is moderate (mean = 3.12).It was recommended that the textile
and clothing industry actively enhance digital skills by collaborating with
government and educational institutions, actively engaging in planning, seeking
loans for modern machinery, and enrolling in digital skills training. Also, the
government should actively increase support for the textile and clothing industry
in Kogi State to optimize the digitalization of their profession.