Y.T. Owie

The concept of 21st century learning and skill development involves learning motivated by practice of teaching students the most relevant, useful, current and globally applied technological skills. How well Business Education students will fare in the business world of work depend greatly on the appropriate skill they have acquired that will enable them fit into the society and the world of work. Hence, this study was conducted to ascertain the current technological skills required for business education graduates to be gainfully employed and self-employed in the world of work. A self-designed four rating scale questionnaire titled: Current Technological Skills Required for Business Education Graduate to be Gainfully Employed and Self-Employed (CTSRBEGGESE) was used for data collection. The instrument was validated by three experts and was also subjected to internal consistency testing using Cronbach Alpha, and the reliability coefficient obtained was 0.89. The sample of the study comprised one hundred and twenty (120) Business Education Graduates of 2022/2023 academic session: thirty four (34) males and eighty six (86) females in the Department of Vocational and Technical Education, Faculty of Education, University of Benin, Benin City, Edo State. As a result of the manageable size of the population, the population was used as sample. Mean and standard deviation were used to analyze the data and find answers to the research questions, while t-test was used to test the research hypothesis. Findings of the study suggested that e-commerce, digital business analysis and communication skills are required for business education graduates to be gainfully employed and self-employed in the world of work. The result of hypothesis testing revealed that there is significant difference between the influence of technological skill on the employability of male and female business education graduates in the world of work. It was recommended among others that E-commerce, digital business analysis and communication skills should be inculcated in the business education curriculum to enable institutions in the proper training of undergraduates to fit into the world of work as they are the current technological skills relevant to the course of study required for business education graduates to be gainfully employed in the world of work