Digital skills required by students of business educationin tertiary institutions for employment in the smalland medium enterprises in Enugu State, Nigeria

Abstract

Business transactions in today’s modern economy primarily rely on the efficient application of digital technology.To satisfy their stakeholders, employers are searching for competent people with digital capabilities. Numeroussurveys indicate that the majority of graduates struggle to effectively use the necessary technology for onlinetransactions. This study identified the digital competencies needed by business school students at tertiaryinstitutions to work in Enugu State’s small and medium businesses. In order to do this, the study addressedfive research topics and assessed four hypotheses at a significance level of 0.05. The study used a design foraction group research. A total of 61 professionals working in digital firms and preparing students for the workforcemade up the study’s population. The respondents were surveyed using a 76-item structured questionnaire toobtain feedback on a four-point rating scale. Three professionals verified the tool. The Cronbach’s alpha reliabilitymethod was used to calculate the test’s internal consistency, and the result was 0.79. Weighted mean and standarddeviation were used to evaluate the instrument and address the research objectives, and analysis of variancewas carried out in SPSS to test the null hypotheses. According to the report, business education students inpostsecondary institutions needed 76 digital skills to get a job. Based on these conclusions, it was advised thatthe business education curriculum be improved to better suit all the digital skills specified by the pertinent expertsfor the students’ efficient training.