PREPARING BUSINSS EDUCATION STUDENTS IN A CHANGING WORLD IN SOUTH-WEST COLLEGES OF EDUCATION: CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS

Abstract

The study was aimed to investigate the challenges and prospects of preparing business education students for work in a changing world in south-west colleges of education. Two research questions guided the study and two null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The theory of learning by Dekeyser was used. A descriptive survey research design was adopted. A total of 219 business educators in 12 Colleges of Education in South-West, Nigeria made up the population of the study. No sample was taken, as the population size was manageable. A structured 15-item validated questionnaire was used fordata collection. The reliability of the instrument was ensured using pilot test that was analyzed using Cronbach Alpha which yielded reliability co-efficient of 0.78. A total of 219 copies of the questionnaire were distributed to the respondents, 211 copies were returned by the respondents, and were used for data analysis. Data related to the research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation while Z-test was used to test the null hypotheses. The findings of the study revealed that respondents agreed with all the mentioned challenges of preparing business education students for work and the possibilities of overcoming the challenges in a changing world in south- west colleges ofeducation as it will help in promoting national economic development. The study revealed that business educators in federal colleges of education did not differ significantly from business educators in state colleges of education on the challenges and possibilities of overcoming the challenges for preparing students for work in a changing world in colleges of education in South-West. It was recommended, among others, that government and other major stakeholders should focus their attention and invest their resources on business education so as to help address the challenges of business education for preparing students for work most especially at the teacher education tertiary institutions. Keywords: Business education, Challenges, Changing world, Prospects, Tertiary institutions