ICT COMPETENCIES AMONG STUDENTS ENROLLED IN MASTERS IN FACILITIES MANAGEMENT

Abstract

Facilities Management (FM) is a discipline having close ties with the efficient management of an organisations built environment. In today’s ever competitive business environments, a core mandate for FM employees is to acquire Information and Communications Technology (ICT) skills which enables, supports and acts as a utility for innovation towards optimally and efficiently managing the built environment. The rate of continuous developments in ICT however equally calls for a continuous review in ICT skills in FM. Literature sadly shows that few reviews on ICT skills are conducted, especially in developing countries. As such, this research studied ICT competencies among 49 students enrolled in Masters in Facilities Management (MFM) in 2013/2014 Academic Session in Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Nigeria with a view to assessing the application of ICT in the student’s places of work. A survey was conducted on the MFM students to collect data using a structured questionnaire. Results reveal that while all students studied use an ICT devise in their place of work, Relative Importance Index however revealed that word processing, spread sheet and downloading (specifically for research) using online databases are the three most used ICT applications. Owning to the shortage of skills in the more technical ICT applications studied which are fundamentally required in current FM practice, the researchers recommended that the MFM curriculum should give more priority in teaching the ICT applications in deficit so that the students can meet up with the marketability requirements for FM practice upon graduation.