Journal of Educational System Volume 3, Issue 2, 2019, PP 42-49 ISSN 2637-5877 Journal of Educational System V3 ● I2 ● 2019 42 Vocational Competencies Required by Youths in Management of Beekeeping for Job creation in North East Zone of Benue State, Nigeria G. E. Ekele 1* , T. S. Kwaghgba 2 & E.N Essien 3 1,2 Department of Vocational Agriculture and Technology Education, Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria 3 Department of Vocational Education, University of Uyo, Akwa-Ibom State, Nigeria *Corresponding Author: G.E. Ekele, Department of Vocational Agriculture and Technology Education, Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria Email: ekelegarbagmail@gmail.com INTRODUCTION Bees (Indus apis) are among the many insects that are beneficial to man. They are commonly called Honeybee, they belong to the kingdom Animalia, phylum Arthropoda, order (Hymenoptera), class (Insecta,) super family Apoide, family Apoidae, genus Apis. Okeme, Ekele and Anam (2014) stated that there are five main species in the genus Apis. They are Apisdorsata (the giant honeybee), Apislaboriosa (the darker giant honeybee), Apis florae (the dwarf honeybee), Apiscerana and Apismellifera. Honeybees are social insects that live in colonies of 10,000 to 60,000 bees (Kangave, Butele, Onzoma and Kato, 2012). A colony consists of a queen (fertile female) a few hundred drones (males) and thousands of workers. They pollinate flowering plants and crops. They also produce honey, beewax, beebread, royal jelly, propolis and bee venom which are useful to man and this can be achieved through beekeeping. Three different kinds of honey bees live in a colony. The hive cannot survive unless it has all the three. Each of the honey bees, the queen, the worker and the drone, have their distinctive job to do (Needham, 2010). The queen bee is the reproductive female and it is usually one in a colony. As a mother she lays eggs and produces queen substance (pheromones). It takes sixteen days for queen to develop from egg into adult. About the seventh day when a queen starts life she mates only once with drones outside the hive. A good queen lays between 1500 and 2000 eggs per day but after two years she lays fewer eggs. These eggs may hatch into drones, ABSTRACT The study investigated vocational competencies required by youth in management of Beekeeping for job creation in North East Zone of Benue State. Three objectives and one hypothesis were formulated for the study. The study adopted survey research design and was conducted in North East Zone of Benue State. The population for the study was 178 respondents and the entire population was used for the study, hence no sampling. A 53 items structured questionnaire titled: ‘Vocational competencies required in management of Beekeeping Questionnaire’ (VCMBQ) was developed by the researchers and used for data collection. The instrument was validated by three experts - one validate from the Department of Forestry and two from the Department of Vocational Agriculture and Technology Education all from the University of Agriculture, Makurdi. Cronbach Alpha method of reliability was used to establish reliability coefficient of 0.93. The data was analyzed using mean to answer research questions and t-test statistics to test the null hypotheses at 5 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that 53 vocational competencies (skills) are required by youths for management of beekeeping in the area of study. Hypothesis tested also revealed that there was no significant difference in the mean rating of responses of beekeepers and extension agents on Vocational competencies required by youth for bee hive management. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended amongst others that the extension agents should package the identified competencies into training modules to enhance mastery of these competencies. Keywords: Vocational competencies, Management of beekeeping, Youths and job creation