Abstract:
The study was conducted to identify the electronic office skills required by business education students in universities in Cross River and Akwa Ibom States. Five research questions were developed and answered in line with what the study sought out to find. Five null hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance and 196 degree of freedom. In carrying out the study, relevant literature was reviewed to guide the study. The researcher employed a survey research design which made use of a structured questionnaire. A structured questionnaire of 50 items was developed for collecting data from the respondents. The population was 251 comprising 223 students and 28 lecturers. Three experts validated the questionnaire. The reliability was determined using the cronbach alpha coefficient and the reliability coefficient of the instrument was 0.88. The questionnaire was administered on 251 respondents and all the copies of the questionnaire were retrieved and analyzed. The analysis of mean and standard deviation was used for answering the research questions and t-test was used for testing the hypotheses. The findings revealed that: word processing skills are required by business education students; internet skills are required by business education students; data base management skills are required by business education students; desktop publishing skills are required business education students; and reprographic skills are required by business education students in Universities in Cross River and Akwa Ibom States. It was found out that there was no significant difference in the mean ratings of the responses of business education students and business education lecturers on the following electronic office skills word processing skill, internet skill, data base management skill, desktop publishing skill and reprographic skill as being required by business education students in universities in Cross River and Akwa Ibom States. It was recommended that the business education programme curriculum be reviewed, properly funded by the government and the updating of skills in computer and information technology by the students on their own.
