TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Statement of the Problem
Purpose of the Study
Significance of the Study
Research Questions
Hypotheses
Delimitation of the Study
CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Conceptual Framework
Business Education
Business Education Graduates
Skills
Accounting
Accounting Skills
Accounting Skills required by Business Education
Graduates
Business Education Lecturers
Entrepreneurship
Sustainability of Entrepreneurship
Theoretical Framework
Katz’s three Skill Approach Theory
Entrepreneurial Skill Trait Theory
Winterbothem Theory of Soft Skill
Related Empirical Studies
Summary of Literature Reviewed
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY
Design of the Study
Area of the Study
Population for the Study
Sample and Sampling Technique
Instrument for Data Collection
Validation of the Instrument
Reliability of the Instrument
Method of Data Collection
Method of Data Analysis
CHAPTER FOUR: PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA Research Question 1
Research Question 2
Research Question 3
Research Question 4
Research Question 5
Testing of Hypotheses
Hypothesis 1
Hypothesis 2
Hypothesis 3
Hypothesis 4
Hypothesis 5
Finding of the Study
Discussion of the Findings
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
Re-statement of the Problem
Summary of Procedures Used
Summary of Findings
Implications of the Study for Cost Accounting
Conclusions
Recommendations
Limitations of the Study
Suggestions for Further Studies
REFERENCES
APPENDICES
Abstract
The major purpose of the study was to determine the accounting skills required by Business Education graduates for sustainable entrepreneurship in Enugu State, Nigeria. Five research questions and five null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. Four hundred and fifty four (454) business education lecturers and graduates in entrepreneurship businesses in Enugu state under Small and Medium Scale enterprises (SMEs) form the population of the study. While two hundred and forty six (246) business education lecturers and graduates in entrepreneurship businesses in Enugu state under Small and Medium Scale enterprises (SMEs) form the sample, made up of 224 graduates and 22 lecturers. A questionnaire on accounting skills required of business education graduates was used for the study. The reliability of the instrument was gotten using Cronbach Alpha formula with overall reliability index of 0.76 gotten. Mean and standard deviation was used to answer the research questions and t-test was used to test the null hypotheses. Findings revealed that the accounting skills required by business education graduates are in the area of stocktaking, profit and loss account, bank statement reconciliation, balance sheet and computer based accounting skills. Finally, it was recommended among others, that in-services training should be provided to graduates of business education so as to enable them acquire the skills for sustainable entrepreneurship venture to be achieved.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Business education is a type of education that gives skills for business rated occupations. Business education trains learners or provides learners with information or competencies needed by all in the management of personal business affairs. However, Business Education according to the American Vocational Association in Osuala (2004) is a programme of instruction which consists of two parts: the first part is office education; a programme for office careers through initial refresher and upgrading education, leading to employment and advancement in office occupation. The second part is general business education; a programme to provides students with information and competencies which are needed by all in managing personal business affairs and in using the services of the business world.
Business education is the sum total of human activities directed towards providing and acquiring specialist knowledge, skills and attitude that are required for successful promotion of business enterprise (Osuala, 2004). Anao (2006) defined business education as an educational process or content which has its primary aim as the preparation of people for roles in business enterprise. Two major specific objectives of business education are the preparation of learners for vocational experience and development of skills, activities and personal habits which forms the basis for further development of employable skills (Nolan, Hayden and Masbary in MounyJoy, 2007). In essence business education apart from equipping one with such vocational skills as secretarial, marketing, administrative and management skills for business success, also equips its graduates with accounting skills, which enables the graduates succeed in
entrepreneurship.
Accounting is one of the major occupation areas of Business Teacher Education that prepares students for job or employment within a wide range of business careers. Accounting is generally viewed as information system about the financial affairs and the operation of a business. It is a statement of money held in trust, expressed in credit and debits. Accounting may also be defined as a statement proffering the use of assets and management of liabilities of a business venture, expresses in a book-keeping form (Clarke, 2002). Accounting is generally useful for effective management of business ventures through the accurate recording, analyses and interpretation of business transactions (Osuala, 2004). American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) in Anao (2002) defines accounting as an art of reading, classifying and summarizing in a significant manner and in terms of money, transactions and events of a financial character and interpreting the result thereof. According to Anao (2002), this definition identifies the major activities found in accounting which include, recording and summarizing of data, usually expressed in monetary terms and the subsequent interpretation of the resultant accounting information. This definition also emphasizes that accounting has to do with only transactions and events which have financial implications. In the context of this study, accounting is one of the areas of business education that prepare graduates for a job or employment within a wide range of business careers due to the inherent skills the beneficiaries acquired.
Skill is the ability acquired through training, and it is demonstrated by action. It is the ability to perform a particular tasks expertly. According to Obi (2011), skill is the ability to use one’s knowledge effectively and readily in performing an art or the habit of doing a particular thing competently. Skill is an ability and capacity acquired through deliberate, systematic and sustained effort to smoothly carryout complex activities or job functions involving ideas (Drucker, 2007). Skills is very imperative for good record-keeping and in controlling the inventory of a business.
Accounting skill is the ability to creatively identify, analyse, record, classify and interpret financial information and activities of an enterprise in order to aid management take business decisions. Ezeani (2008), opines that accounting skill is a service activity and the functions of which are identifying, measuring, recording and communicating quantitative information, primarily financial in nature, about economic entities. Obviously, no single research work will capture all accounting skills. Hence, Odo (1990) enumerated some accounting skills business education graduates should be conversant with to include: stocktaking skills, profit and loss account skills, bank statement reconciliation skills, balance sheet skills, postings to journals, preparing ledger accounts and trial balance, simple partnership accounts and so on. This study will concentrate on stocktaking skills, profit and loss account skills, bank statement reconciliation skills, balance sheet skills and computer based skills required of business education graduates in entrepreneurship.
Stocktaking skills are those competencies required in ascertaining the overall cost of all the goods in the store either bought or manufactured for the purpose of resale or use. Stocktaking skills may include; taking physical count of inventory to manage deterioration and obsolesce. Calculating the value of closing stock of goods, cost of goods sold and the gross profit or loss using correctly the stocktaking methods of First-in-First-Out (FIFO), Last-in-First-Out (LIFO),Next-inFirst-Out (NIFO), and the averaging methods (Odo, 1990). Stock taking skills, in summary among other things aids the accountant or book keeper to determine the profit or loss position of a business enterprise.
Another accounting skill that is important for successful business operation and management is the profit and loss account skill. The profit and loss account skill is the ability to compute the trading expenses for the period, and its deduction from the gross profit or loss, plus other revenue income, to determine the Net profit or loss. It is a deliberate and systematic effort to smoothly carryout book-keeping functions to aid the determination of the actual profit or loss of a business (Agbo, 2007). Agbo further stated that profit and loss account is prepared to determine the actual profit or loss of a business. The balancing figure in profit and loss account is either net profit or net loss. According to Igboke (2008), in the preparation of profit and loss account, a trading account is first prepared to obtain the gross profit or loss which is brought down and all the administrative, office, selling and distribution expenditure charged (debited) against it. Igboke further opined that an accounting officer should be able to credit all revenue income to add to the gross profit or charged against the gross loss and able to debit expenses. The net profit or net loss is usually transferred to the balance sheet usually referred to as the statement of affairs of a business.
The possession of balance sheet skills by a business education graduate would also help him to establish and manage his business or as a employee of business. Balance sheet skills are the abilities the book-keeper exhibit in summarizing the statement of the net worth of a business venture at a particular date. A balance sheet is not accepted until it is systematically arranged in an order or the balance sheet order of permanency. Agbo further listed some balance sheet skills to include; ability to arrange assets and liabilities in their order of permanency and recording of long term liabilities, current liabilities, fixed assets and current assets to clearly show the net worth of the business. One important transaction in the balance sheet is the cash and the bank balance, the amount of money which the business will depend on for its routine business activities in the next business year. In order to check fraud or ensure an error free cash and bank balance, it is important that the balancing values of cash and bank are reconciled with the bank statement (Agbo, 2007). A statement the book-keeper prepares for this function is referred to as the bank statement reconciliation.
Bank statement reconciliation skills are such skills required of an accounting officer to identify record or records that caused the differences between the bank balance in the cash book and the bank balance as per the bank’s statement of account. The ability to identify and correct such discrepancies can only be possible if one has bank reconciliation statement skills. According to Wood and Omuya (2003), a bank statement reconciliation may be defined as a statement presented to correct at a certain date, the discrepancies or imbalances between the bank statement balance and the customer’s cash book balance of the bank column. In order to facilitate an error free reconciliation accounting statements and procedures in this era of information and communication technology (ICT), computer skills are of utmost important.
Business education graduates should be able to apply computer skills to generate accounting information for effective and successful business operations. Computer skills, according to Stewart (2000), is the ability to use computer to carry out a function. This function entails using computer in processing accounting data. Computers are used in almost every field of business as it speeds up data processing tremendously. Computer is an electronic device that work under the control of stored programme, automatically accepting, storing and processing data to produce information/result (Osuala, 2007). The application of computer today in all facets of life due to its efficiency, consistency, accuracy and speed has made computer literacy a major prerequisite for employment especially in the field of business education. Thus, a business education graduate ought to acquired computer skills to able to prepare, interpret, analyze and summarise accounting statement for modern business organization and management of entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship is concerned with the identification of gaps and business opportunities in one’s immediate environment and bringing together the necessary resources in an innovative way to fill these gaps, bearing the risks involved and in the process gaining personal rewards (Emmanuel, 2013). Entrepreneurship is the willingness and ability of an individual to seek out investment opportunities and the collating of the necessary resources to establish and run an enterprise successfully. Agomuo (2002), defined entrepreneurship as a process of bringing together creative and innovative ideas, and combining them with management and organization skills in order to manage people, money and resources to meet an identified need and thereby create wealth. Oduma (2009), on his study on Employers Expectations for gainful employment recommended that the possession of accounting skills is imperative for gainful employment of business education graduates either as self or as a paid employer in entrepreneurship for sustainability.
Sustainability in entrepreneurship takes a slightly different perspective from the traditional focus of entrepreneurship by emphasizing additional focus of promoting sustainable living and environmental improvement. Sustainable entrepreneurship can be defined as the continuing commitment of business to behave in an ethical way and contribute towards economic development while
improving the quality of life of the workforce, their families and the local and global community, as well as future generation (World Business Council for Sustainable Development, 2000). Brundland Commission (2007) also defined sustainability development as the process in which the exploitation of natural resources, the allocation of investments, and the process of technological development and organizational change are in harmony with each other for both current and future generations. In the context of this study, sustainability is the persistence growth and development in the assets of entrepreneurship.
Statement of the Problem
Every entrepreneurship business in form of micro, small, medium and large scale production need some sort of financial information for effective business operations. Accounting information is required by managers or owners of enterprise for effective business decision making. However, graduates of business education in Nigeria and Enugu State in particular employed in entrepreneurship at various position, seem to be lacking in some knowledge and skills required for keeping accounting records of entrepreneurship.
Ogalanya (2010) conducted a research to ascertain the extent to which employers are satisfied with the accounting job skills exhibited by business education graduates. The result showed that as a result of low job skills exhibited, especially in accounting areas, some employers subject their new employees to several weeks of in-plant retraining session (on-the-job-training) to beef up their job-skills, and hence improve their performance as business education graduates. Business education programmes prepare graduates for a job or employment within a wide range of business careers due to the inherent skills the beneficiaries acquire.
However, lack of accounting employability skills among the graduates may have contributed to a large extent, why business education graduates due not venture into entrepreneurship business after graduation. While those employed in entrepreneurship perform below expectation as was observed by Ogalanya’s study (2000). In fact some of the small and medium scale industries visited by the researcher in Enugu State on his pilot survey, preferred employing OND, HND and B.Sc graduates in accountancy to business education graduates whom they fill lack some basic skills in keeping financial records of enterprise. This may be responsible why business education graduates are considered last in appointment of accounting officers in entrepreneurship.
In fact, business education graduates because of the specialist accounting skills the course offers, were suppose to be the best entrepreneurs who should employ others rather than being in the labour market seeking for job. Based on the foregoing, there is the need to determine the areas of lack in accounting skills required by business education graduates for sustainable entrepreneurship in
Enugu State.
Purpose of the Study
The major purpose of the study was to determine the accounting skills required by business education graduates for sustainable entrepreneurship in Enugu State. Specifically, the study will determine:
- The stocktaking skills required by business education graduates for sustainable entrepreneurship in Enugu State, Nigeria.
- The profit and loss account skills required by business education graduates for sustainable entrepreneurship in Enugu State, Nigeria.
- The bank statement reconciliation skills required by business education graduates for sustainable entrepreneurship in Enugu State, Nigeria.
- The balance sheet skills required by business education graduates for sustainable entrepreneurship in Enugu State,
Nigeria.
- The computer based accounting skills required by business education graduates for sustainable entrepreneurship in Enugu
State, Nigeria.
Significance of the Study
The findings of this study would be of immense benefit to business education graduates, business education lecturers, managers of entrepreneurship and future researchers.
The findings of this study would be beneficial to business education graduates in the following ways: Graduates of business education will benefit from this study as it will expose them to the areas of lack in the skills required for proper keeping of books of account in their work place. Many of the graduates who still lack in the knowledge of using computer in keeping accounting records will come to appreciate ICT skills as an indispensible skill in the job market. This study will also spur business education graduates for retraining in ICT skills especially those who graduated before the introduction of ICT programmes in the business education curriculum. Moreso, business education graduates at various levels of higher learning will equally benefit from the outcomes of this study as it will afford them opportunity of having broader understanding in areas of lack in stocktaking, profit and loss account, bank statement reconciliation, balance sheet and computer based accounting skills required for sustainable entrepreneurship and success in the world of work. These skills if properly acquired will spur business education graduates to be more creative in order to be self-employed or secure employment in any paid entrepreneurship establishment.
The findings of this study would be beneficial to business education lecturers in the following ways; the outcome of the study will expose areas of lack in accounting skill needs of business education graduates. These areas of lack in accounting skills will enable lecturers launch out procedures or methodologies to better address these accounting skill needs to undergraduates and postgraduates students for better performance in entrepreneurship.
Studies have identified lack of accounting skills required for success in entrepreneurship ventures as one of the factors causing the winding-up of firms during the first few years of its establishment. Therefore, managers of entrepreneurship ventures will benefit through this study in the sense that the outcome of the study will expose the areas of lack in the skills required for proper stocktaking, preparation
of profit and loss account and the balance sheet of the
entrepreneurship prepared by business education graduates. Secondly, the managers will be exposed to the areas of lack in the computer based skill needs of the graduates especially in using computer in preparation of pay roll, and in keeping accounting books of the entrepreneurship. These may call for retraining of these employed graduates for optimal performance. Thirdly, through the outcome of this study managers who are still keeping accounting on books may come to appreciate the importance of keeping their accounting records on softwares.
Finally, the study would also make a significant contribution to the existing body of literature in the discipline, researchers and textbook writers.
Research Questions
The following research questions were formulated to guide the study:
- What are the stocktaking skills required by business education graduates for sustainable entrepreneurship in Enugu State, Nigeria?
- What are the profit and loss account skills required by business education graduates for sustainable entrepreneurship in Enugu State, Nigeria?
- What are the bank statement reconciliation skills required by business education graduates for sustainable entrepreneurship in
Enugu State, Nigeria?
- What are the balance sheet skills required by business education graduates for sustainable entrepreneurship in Enugu State, Nigeria?
- What are the computer based accounting skills required by business education graduates for sustainable entrepreneurship ventures in Enugu State, Nigeria?
Hypotheses
The study tested the following null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance:
H01: There is no significant difference in the mean responses of business education graduates and business education lecturers in stocktaking skills required by business education graduates for
sustainable entrepreneurship in Enugu State.
H02: There is no significant difference between the mean ratings of business education graduates and business education lecturers on profit and loss account skills required by business education graduates for sustainable entrepreneurship in Enugu State.
H03: There is no significant difference between the mean rating of business education graduates and business education lecturers on bank statement reconciliation skills required by business education graduates for sustainable entrepreneurship in Enugu
State.
H04: There is no significant difference between the mean ratings of business education graduates and business education lecturers on balance sheet skills required by business educating graduates
for sustainable entrepreneurship in Enugu State.
H05: There is no significant difference between the mean ratings of business education graduates and business education lecturers on computer based accounting skills required by business education graduates for sustainable entrepreneurship in Enugu
State.
Delimitation of the Study
This study was delimited to the determination of accounting skills required by business education graduates for sustainable
entrepreneurship ventures in Enugu State. No attempt will be made to include other business education graduates in other states of the federation. The study would specifically determine the stocktaking, bank statement reconciliation, profit and loss account, balance sheet and computer based accounting skills required by business education graduates for sustainable entrepreneurship ventures in Enugu State, Nigeria.
The study elicited the opinions of business education graduates and business education lecturers to answer the research questions and achieve the objectives of the study.
