Digital Technology Competencies and Employability of Postgraduate Business Education Students in South-South Nigerian Universities

Abstract

Business education is a component of vocational training that focuses on developing essential skills. It exposes learners to the principles, concepts, fundamentals, theories, and processes of commerce. This research evaluated the digital technology competencies held by postgraduate business education students for employment opportunities in South-South Universities in Nigeria. The study was directed by two research questions and six hypotheses. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. The sample size was, comprises 207 Postgraduate business education students. A 28-item questionnaire was used. It had two parts: Part A contained four (4) items of demographic variables of the respondents – Name of university, Sex, Type of university, programme of study. Part B contained 24 items based on the two (2) research questions in a cluster form. The questionnaire was structured on a 4-point scale of responses: Highly Competent (HC), Competent (C), Moderately Competent (MC), Not Competent (NC). There was face and content validity of the instrument. A total of 12 copies of the questionnaire were administered to 12 postgraduate business education students at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, which is not part of the study. The instrument demonstrated reliability, and the gathered data were analyzed with Cronbach's Alpha. Research query 1. r = 0.82, and Research query 2. r = 0.84. A total of 207 questionnaires were distributed to postgraduate students. A total of 199 were entirely finished and sent back in a span of three weeks. The return rate was 96.14%. The gathered data were assessed and weighted in this manner: Highly Competent (HC) – 4 points, Competent (C) – 3 points, Moderately Competent (MC) – 2 points, Not Competent (NC) – 1 point. Any item that has an average score of 2.5 or higher is considered Competent, whereas any item with a score below 2.5 is viewed as Not Competent. A t-test was conducted to evaluate the hypotheses with a significance level of 0.05. The findings for research question 1 are as follows: The ability to recognize fields with distinct values and implement security techniques for database management is deemed competent, whereas creating database tables and inputting data, understanding file security, and the capacity to integrate and enhance database design are considered incompetent. The following recommendations were made: business education graduates should undergo more practical training to be competent in identifying fields with unique values and use structured query language (SQL) effectively. Business education graduates should undergo more practical training to be competent in scale graphics to enhance balance and layout text to leave white space. The acquisition of digital technology skills is a veritable tool that will enable the graduates of the business education programme to be more effective and efficient in the world of work.