APPRAISAL OF ANALYTICAL THINKING AND PRESENTATION SKILLS ACQUIRED FOR JOB CREATION BY GRADUATING BUSINESS EDUCATION STUDENTS OF TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN SOUTH EAST NIGERIA

Abstract

This study determined an appraisal of acquisition of analytical thinking and presentation skills for job creation by graduating business education students in South-East Nigeria. Two research questions guided the study while four null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 alpha level. Descriptive survey research design was employed. The population consisted 1,064 graduating business education students from all public universities and colleges of education in the area. A total of 500 of these group of students were sampled using the proportionate stratified sampling technique. Instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire titled “Acquired Job Creation Skills Questionnaire (AJCSQ)” which has two clusters on a five-point scale. The instrument was validated by three experts. The reliability co-efficient was 0.74 and 0.88 were obtained using Cronbach alpha method. Out of 500 questionnaires distributed, 461 copies were retrieved which represented 92.5 percent retrieval. The data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation in answering the research questions and to check the respondent responses to the mean. ʈ-test was used for testing the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that graduating business education students of tertiary institutions in South-East Nigeria moderately acquired analytical thinking skills for job creation and little acquired presentation skills for job creation. There was no significant difference in the acquisition of analytical thinking skills whereas there was significant difference on presentation skills as a result of gender and institution type. Based on the findings, it was concluded that. Business Education programme is a veritable tool for preparing students to acquire relevant skills and should be enhanced in order to adequately prepare students for job creation on graduation. It was therefore recommended that lecturers should adopt suitable instructional strategies to enhance students’ acquisition of the vital job creation skills while curriculum developers should integrate relevant skills to the programmes and stipulate resources that will ensure their adequate inculcation in students to enable them create jobs on graduation and reduce the level of unemployment in society.