INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY AND EMPLOYABILITY POTENTIALS AMONG UNDERGRADUATE BUSINESS EDUCATION STUDENTS: TOWARDS PREPARING STUDENTS FOR GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS

Abstract

This study determined the level of utilization of ICT tools and the level of teaching of ICT skills to undergraduate business education students. Two research questions were answered, while two hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The area of the study was University of Calabar. Survey research design was adopted for the study. A questionnaire titled “information and communication technology and employability potentials' Questionnaire” (ICTAEPQ) was used for data collection. Three experts validated the instrument. The reliability of the instrument was established using test retest method. The population of the study was 333 undergraduate business education students. The sample for the study was 167 undergraduate business education students selected using the stratified random sampling technique. Data collected were analyzed using mean scores for the research questions and One Way Analysis of Variance for the hypotheses. The findings revealed that lecturers did utilize ICT tools in teaching the students. Also there was no significant difference in the mean ratings of business education students in 200 level, 300 level and 400 level on the level of teaching of ICT skills to business education students in enhancing their employability potentials. Based on the findings some recommendations were made which included that the university authorities should make provision for e-library and ICT studio for teaching in business education programmes.