IMPROVING THE QUALITY AND RELEVANCE OF BUSINESS EDUCATION PROGRAMME THROUGH COLLABORATION WITH CORPORATE SECTOR.

Abstract

Abstract

This paper examined the various ways of improving the quality and relevance of business education programme in Nigerian universities through collaboration with corporate sectors. The study was carried out in Enugu State. Two research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. Descriptive survey research design was used for the study. A sample size of 364 managers randomly selected was used for the study while all the 12 Business Educators from Enugu State University of Science and Technology and University of Nigeria Nsukka were used for the study. The instrument was validated by three experts, two experts from the Department of Technology and Vocational Education and one expert from the Department of Science and Computer, Measurement and Evaluation option, all from Faculty of Education, Enugu State University of Science and Technology.  A structured questionnaire titled ‘Improving the quality and relevance of business education programme through collaboration with corporate sector’ developed by the researchers was used for data collection. The data collected were analyzed using mean with standard deviation while t-test was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that inclusion of competency based training and recruitment of experienced and qualified business educators are some of the various ways institutions could help in improving the quality and relevance of business education programme. The study also revealed that corporate sectors could improve the quality and relevance of business education programme in Universities by absorbing business education students during work visits and industrial training. It was concluded that universities should partner with corporate sectors to offer curriculum that will make business education students more valuable to companies while corporate sectors should share information and establish communication networks with the institution especially on technological changes in the industry that is relevant to business education programme. Based on the findings of the study it was recommended among others that competency based training need to be integrated into business education curriculum and corporate sectors should absorb business education students during industrial training and expose them to employable skills that are relevant to their programme.