Research
Assessment of Effective Communication Competencies Possessed by University Business Education Graduates for Successful Running of Businesses in South South Nigeria
This study investigated employers assessment of effective communication competencies possessed by university Business Education graduates for successful running of businesses in south south Nigeria. One research question and three hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted descriptive survey design. The population comprised 318 employers of Business Education graduates in Rivers State and Delta State. The population also served as sample since it was manageable. The instrument for data collection was a 20 item questionnaire whose face and content were adequately validated by experts. The instrument internal consistency was determined using cronbach alpha, which has reliability of 0.93. The research question data were analyzed using mean and standard deviation. Z-test was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The finding of the study revealed among others that Business Education graduates are competent in ability to speak clearly with empathy, ability to display good listening skills, ability to interpret message correctly, ability to relate information appropriately to concerned parties. However, they are not competent in ability to formulate points of view and ability to meet the functional needs of the media. It was recommended among others that university Business Education graduates should constantly undergo training and retaining on communication courses to be more competent in all communication skills, more business communication courses should be built in business education curriculum to enable the students acquire more communication competencies.
Assessment of Information and Communication Technology Competencies Possessed by University Postgraduate Business Education Students to Handle Entrepreneurship Business Challenges in Nigeria
University business education graduates, by the nature of their programme, ought to possess relevant information and communication technology competencies for successful entrepreneurship but casual observation and empirical reports indicate that they are not doing well in this aspect. Therefore, this study assessed the ICT competencies possessed by the university postgraduate business education students to handle entrepreneurship business challenges in Nigeria. One research questionand five hypotheses guided the study. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The population, also used as the sample, consisted of 388 business education graduates who are currently running their postgraduate programme in universities in the south-south and south-east geopolitical zones. A validated questionnaire with a reliability coefficient of 0.96 was used for data collection. The mean and standard deviation were used to analyze the research questions while Z-test was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The results revealed that the respondents have relevant competent in ability to send e-mail, ability to receive e-mail, skills in producing documents with word processors among others. However, it was recommended that university authorities should encourage business education lecturers and students to organize workshops and conferences with a view to keeping them abreast to acquire more skills in ability to receive and send fax messages and ability to create website.
