Information And Communication Technology (Ict) Skills Needed By Office Technologists For Optimal Performance In Federal Polytechnics In North-East Nigeria
Prof. Basil Nwosu
Department of Business Education, Ebonyi State University Abakaliki
Ngozi Evelyn Umeano
Federal Polytechnic Mubi Adamawa
Keywords: Information, communication, technology, skills, office technologists, performance
Abstract
The study examined information and communication technology (ICT) skills needed by office technologists for optimal performance in Federal Polytechnics in North-East Nigeria. two purposes of the study and corresponding research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. Descriptive research survey design was used for the study. The sample of the study consisted of two hundred and twenty-two (222) office technologists in Federal Polytechnics in North-East Nigeria which were all accommodated as the sample size for the study. The instrument for data collection was self structured questionnaire titled: Information and Communication Technology Skills needed by Office technologists for Optimal Performance Questionnaire (ICTSTOPQ), was design to elicit information from the respondents. The instrument for the study was validated by three experts two from the department of business education and one from the Science Education, all from the faculty of education, Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki. The reliability of the instrument was ascertained through a pilot study involving office technologists in Federal Polytechnics in North Central, Nigeria. The data collected from the respondents from the pilot study were used to compute the reliability of the instrument. The Cronbach alpha SPSS statistical procedure was used to determine the internal consistency of the instrument which yielded overall consistency of 0.94. The instrument for the study has two parts. Part one sought information on demography of respondents. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the questions and t-test statistic was used to test hypotheses. The hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The results showed that word processing skills, and database management skills were needed by office technologists in Federal Polytechnics in North-East Nigeria. Based on the findings, the study recommended among others that office technologists should be trained and re-trained on the word processing skills such as skill is Microsoft word, how to format, save and retrieve documents among others for effective performance in the modern office and that office technologists needed to be equipped with desktop publishing skills for proficiency in proofreading of documents as well as be able to translate electronic information to other traditional forms in modern offices.