INTEGRATION OF EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES IN BUSINESS EDUCATION CURRICULUM FOR EMPLOYABILITY AND ECONOMIC SURVIVAL OF GRADUATES IN SOUTH-EAST, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study focused on integration of emerging technologies in Business Education curriculum for employability and economic survival of graduates in South-East, Nigeria. The study was guided by three research question and three null hypotheses. The study adopted descriptive survey research design The population for the study was 492 comprising 192 Business Educators and 299 final year students in public tertiary institutions. The sample size of the study was 148 comprising 58 Business Educators and 90 final year Business Education students selected using multi-stage sampling technique. The instrument for data collection was structured questionnaire validated by three experts. The overall reliability coefficient of the instrument was 0.83 obtained using Cronbach Alpha statistic. The data collected were analysed using mean, standard deviation and t-test statistic. The mean was used to answer the research questions, standard deviation was used to ascertain the homogeneity of the respondents’ responses while t-test was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. It was revealed that the emerging technologies required in Business Education curriculum for employability and economic survival of graduates. Include: Artificial Intelligence, Cloud computing, Internet of Things and Blockchain technology among others.. It was found that to high extent integration of emerging technologies into Business Education curriculum can enhance employability and economic survival of graduates while the obstacles that hinder integration of emerging technologies in Business Education curriculum: limited access to technology, inadequate training and professional development of educators, resistance to change by some educators and inadequate infrastructure in many institutions among others. Based on findings, it was recommended that: Government through the Ministry of Education, Curriculum planners and Educational institutions should review the curriculum of Business Education to formulate flexible policies that would encourage the integration of emerging technologies for employability and economic survival of graduates.