Improvement Needs for Acquisition of Broad Management Skills for Employability of Undergraduate Accounting Education Students in North-east, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined the improvement needs for acquisition of broad management skills for employability of undergraduate accounting education students in North-east, Nigeria. The study had two research questions and two null hypotheses. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The sample of the study comprised 52 accounting educators, 156 accountants in industries, and 281 final year undergraduate Accounting education students. Structured questionnaire was used for data collection. The questionnaire had two different rating scales. The first rating scale was used to collect data relating to the level of importance of the skills and the second rating scale on the second column of the questionnaire was used to collect data on the extent to which the skills were consciously developed among the students. The structured questionnaire was validated and pilot tested, a reliability coefficient of 0.79 was obtained. The data were collected by the researcher assisted by ten trained research assistants. The data were analyzed using Table of frequencies, mean scores, standard deviations, and improvement needs index to answer the research questions, while the hypotheses were tested using independent sample t. test. The study disclosed that all the broad management skills were adjudged by accounting educators and accountants in industries as very important for inclusion in the curriculum of undergraduate accounting education students in North- east, Nigeria. Undergraduate accounting education students were deficient in four of the five subscales of broad management skills. Based on the findings, it was recommended that accounting educators should include the areas of deficiency identified in this study in accounting education curriculum and focus attention on developing those broad management skills.

Keywords: Broad management competencies, Employability skills, Skills improvement needs, Accounting education.

DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/13-22-05

Publication date: November 30^th 2021