BUSINESS INVENTORY MANAGEMENT COMPETENCIES REQUIRED OF BUSINESS EDUCATION GRADUATES FOR SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN DELTA STATE

Abstract

The study investigated business inventory management competences required of business education graduates in Delta State. Descriptive survey research design was adopted. The population of the study consisted of 420 managers of small and medium scale enterprises in the General Business Service sector operating in Delta State, and registered with the State Ministry of Commerce and Industry (Delta State Industry Directory, 2017).A researcher-developed questionnaire comprising 10
items was validated by experts in the field was used to collect data. Mean ratings and standard deviation were used to analyze data in order to answer the research questions and determine the closeness of the respondents’ mean while Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used in testing the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that managers of small and medium scale enterprises opined that business education graduates require business inventory management
competences for successful entrepreneurship. It was also revealed that years of business experience of the respondents did not significantly affect their mean ratings on their opinion on the business inventory competences required by business education graduates for successful entrepreneurship. Based on these findings, it was recommended among others that administrators of business and entrepreneurship education programmes should employ well qualified business and entrepreneurship educators who are knowledgeable about the current trends with business inventory management practices for successful business operations. It was also recommended that the administrators of business education programme should collaborate with owners of small and medium scale enterprises to organize internship programmes for business education students in the area of business resource management