Employer’s rating of skills needed by business education graduates for employability in Enugu State

Abstract

The employability of Business Education graduates for sustainable development has remained a serious issue in Nigeria as the youth unemployment rate keeps increasing and government efforts at addressing it are not yielding results. This paper reports employers’ rating of the skills needed by Business Education graduates for employability in Enugu State. The descriptive survey design was used for the study. The population comprised all the employers of labour in Enugu State, with 40 employers purposely sampled from the 17 local government areas (LGAs) in the state. A validated research questionnaire was used to collect data. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used to determine the internal consistency of the instrument, which yielded an index value of 0.77. The data collected were analyzed using mean score and t-test statistic at 0.05 confidence limit. All the generic skills identified in the study were rated by the employers as highly needed by Business Education graduates for employability. The most highly rated skill was effective planning and resourcefulness and the least rated by the employers but highly needed was problem-solving. Also,  there was no significant difference in the rating of the skills needed for employability of Business Education graduates based on the years of business experience of the employers. Thus, collaboration is imperative between the management of higher educational institutions and employers of labour in the areas of information and training on the skills needed by Business Education graduates for employability. Also, employers of labour are expected to provide educational institutions with information regarding these skills, based on environmental and technological changes in business.

Keywords: Employers, Skills, Business education graduates, Employability