BUSINESS EDUCATION LECTURERS’ PERCEPTION OF SOFT SKILLS ACQUISITION BY BUSINESS EDUCATION STUDENTS TO FIT INTO TECHNOLOGY-DRIVEN WORLD
Abstract
This study investigated business education lecturers’ perception of soft skills acquisition by business education students to gainfully fit into the technology-driven world. The study employed a Descriptive survey research design. Three research questions were raised and one hypothesis was formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The population of the study comprised 171 business education lecturers from public universities in South-South that offer business education programme. Census method was used for the study because the population was of manageable size. The instrument used for data collection was a structured questionnaire titled “Perception on Soft Skills Acquisition by Business Education Graduates” (POSSBEG), and it was structured on four pointLIkert rating scale of Strongly Agreed (4), Agreed (3), Disagreed (2), and Strongly Disagreed (1). The instrument was face and content validated by three experts. The reliability of the instrument was determined using Person Product Moment Correlation method, and reliability coefficient 0.81 was obtained. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions with a criterion mean of 2.50 and above was regarded as agreed while 2.49 below was regarded as disagreed. The null hypothesis was tested using independent t-test at 0.05 level of significance. Findings from the study revealed that business education lecturers agreed that soft skills are highly needed by business education students to gainfully fit into the technology- driven world. Consequent upon the findings, the study concluded that soft skills are crucial for the recipients of business education programme to gainfully secure employment opportunities in technology-driven world. In line with the findings, it was recommended among others that governments and school administrators should organize regular training and workshops for business education lecturers to keep them abreast with saleable knowledge and skills as well as new methods of imparting them on business education students.
Key Words: Business Educators, Soft Skills, Business Education Students, Technology-driven world
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