ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE SKILLS POSSESSED BY ACCOUNTING EDUCATION GRADUATING STUDENTS OF PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN ONDO AND EKITI STATES FOR EMPLOYABILITY

ABSTRACT

The study is on Accounting Software Skills Possessed by Accounting Education Graduating Students of Public Universities in Ondo and Ekiti States for Employability. The study specifically determined the extent to which accounting education graduating students of public universities in Ondo and Ekiti States possessed accounting software skills for employability. Four research questions guided the study and four null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance for the study. Descriptive survey research design was adopted in this study. The population comprised 125 and 60 accounting education final year students of Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Ondo and Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti respectively. The population for the study was manageable, therefore, there was no sampling. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire. The instrument was validated by three experts in University of Benin, Benin City. Cronbach alpha method was used to compute the reliability of the instrument which yielded the correlation coefficient of 0.87. Data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation statistical tool. t-test was used to test the hypotheses and simple percentage was used to analyze demographic data. From the result of the analysis, it was concluded that accounting education graduating students possessed to a low but positive extent billing and invoicing system skills, payroll management system skills, enterprise resource planning systems skills and time and expense management system skills for employability. There was no significant difference between male and female graduating students in the possession of the accounting software for employability. It was therefore recommended that there was need for accounting education students to be exposed to the use of accounting software for accounting practices particularly from their second year so as to foster their knowledge of the accounting cycle. The use of accounting software should be introduced to the vocational and technical education curriculum so as not to limit accounting education students to the confine of education but to expose them to fit into the corporate world and also make them technologically equipped for their self-reliance and employability. Other than the teaching practice being carried out, accounting education students should also be made to engage in practical exercises where the knowledge of accounting software will be tested before their final graduation from the school. Accounting software professionals should be employed in vocational and technical education departments so as to train accounting education graduates on the use of various accounting softwares and to make them readily qualified for employment in the corporate world.