Computing Competencies Required of South-South University Business Education Graduates for Employability

Abstract

This study investigated computing competencies needed of university businеss еducation graduatеs for employability in South-South Universities of Nigeria. One research question and three (3) hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted a descriptive survey design; the targeted population comprises 235; The breakdown is 138 businеss еducation lecturers in state universities and 97 businеss еducation lecturers in federal universities. Since the population is manageable, there was no sampling. A 20-item questionnaire was the instrument used for data collection. The questionnaire was divided into two parts: Part A contained five (5) items of demographic variables of the respondents – Name of university, Type of university, Rank, Sex, and Job experience. Part B contained 15 items based on one (1) research question. The questionnaire was structured on a 4-point scale of responses: Very Highly Needed (VHN), Highly Needed (HN), Moderately Needed (MN), Not Needed (NN). There was face and content validity of the instrument. In order to ensure the internal consistency of the instrument, a total of 12 copies of the questionnaire were administered to 12 lecturers in businеss еducation at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, in the South East, Nigeria. The data obtained were subjected to Cronbach's Alpha, which yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.89. A total of 235 copies of the questionnaire were administered to 235 lecturers, and 218 were fully completed and returned within a period of three weeks. There was a return rate of 92.77%. The data collected were weighted and analysed as follows: Very Highly Needed (VHN) – 4 points, Highly Needed (HN) - 3 points, Moderately Needed (MN) - 2 points, Not Needed (NN) - 1 point. The results indicate that there is a strong demand for cloud computing, MS Word processing, MS Excel processing, Adobe PageMaker processing, and others. The outcome of the hypotheses indicates that there is no notable difference in the average ratings of male and female computing skills required by business education graduates for employability in universities located in South-South Nigeria. There is no notable difference in the average ratings regarding state and federal lecturers' computing skills required by business education graduates for employability in universities within South-South Nigeria, among other factors.