GLOBAL REQUIREMENTS OF BUSINESS EDUCATION SKILLS ACQUISITION FOR STUDENTS’ WORK PERFORMANCE IN NORTH EAST ZONE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to determine the global requirements of Business Education digital skills acquisition for students’ work performance in North East Zone, Nigeria.  A descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study.  The study was guided by two objectives, two research questions, and two null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance.  The population for the study was 263, drawn from two Federal Universities in North East Zone (Borno State and Bauchi State).  The entire population of 263 was used as sample since it was relatively sizeable for the study.  The instrument used for data collection was 40 items questionnaire grouped into two sections based on objectives.  The instrument was validated by two experts. Cronbach Alpha method was used to determine the reliability of the instrument which yielded a coefficient reliability of 0.82%.  Out of 263 copies of the questionnaires distributed, 243 were properly filled and returned representing 92.40% returned rate.  Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as tables, mean and standard deviation.  T-test statistics was used for testing the Null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance.  The mean average score analysis revealed that skill acquisition in business education were highly relevant in meeting the global requirement for work performance of students after graduation from Universities in North East Zone, Nigeria, except shorthand writing and transcription was marked irrelevant.  The t-test compared mean result indicated no significant difference in the responses of University of Maiduguri and Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Bauchi respondent’s on both the relevance of skills requirement in business education and ways of improving on them to meet the global work performance in North East Zone, Nigeria.  It was therefore, recommended that, though the entire skills in business education were seen as highly relevant only shorthand writing and transcription and typewriting skills, they require improvement.

Keywords: Skills, Skills Acquisition, Business Education, Global Work performance