¹Nwosu, Patience Okwudiri,² Ogar, Joseph Ojishe,³ Danjumam, John Salihu

¹,³Department of Educational Foundations, Taraba State University, Jalingo

²Department of Educational Management, University of Calabar

The advancement in technology and its dynamic influence on work processes puts high demand on ICT skills, thereby necessitating the need of students undertaking training in their respective fields of specializations to be more versatile in current labour market needs so as to be qualified to work in the ICT inclined labour market. The study examined Information and Communication technology skill acquisition and graduates’ employability in Cross River State, Nigeria. Two research questions guided the study. Survey research design was adopted. The population of the study comprised of all the 475 lecturers in the Faculty of Education, University of Calabar. The simple random sampling technique was used to sample 47% resulting to 223 respondents. The instrument for data collection was a modified four point likert scale titled; information and communication technology skill acquisition and graduates employability questionnaire (ICTSAGEQ). The reliability estimate obtained using Cronbach alpha reliability was 0.85. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation to answer research questions. Findings revealed that information and communication technology skill acquisition has significant influence on graduates’ employability. The study further found that the challenges of ICT skills acquisition bothers around inadequate funding, inadequacy of ICT compliant manpower, poor power supply, lack of infrastructure among others. The study therefore concluded that ICT skill acquisition significantly influence graduates’ employability in Cross River State, to this end, it was recommended that Students should be encouraged and sponsored to acquire relevant ICT skills before graduation to enable them fit into the modern world of work or possibly set up their personal ICT services for self –reliance and creating jobs for others thereby reducing unemployment and by extension youth restiveness.

Information, Communication, Technology, Skills, Graduates, Employability

1) Ajibade, A, (2009). More graduates, less skills. Retrieved from http:// www.skill/com dated 30/11/2009.

2) Ahmad, S., Mohd Ishak, N., Ismail, K. & Selamat, J., (2010). Generic competency profile among students in institute of higher learning: a case of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Malaysia. College Student J., 44, 3, 811-820

3) Fulgence, K. (2016). Employability of Higher Education Institution Graduates: Exploring the influence of Entrepreneurship Education and Employability Skills Development Programmes activities in Tanzania.

4) Freeman, R.B., (2002). The labour market in the new information economy., National Bureau of Economic Research.

5) OECD, (2012). ICT Skills and Employment: New Competences and Jobs for a Greener and Smarter Economy. OECD Digital Economy Papers, No. 198, OECD Publishing.

6) Hagan, D. (2004). Employer Satisfaction with ICT Graduates. Proc. 6th Australasian Computing Educ. Conf.(ACE2004), Dunedin, New Zealand. CRPIT, 30. Lister, R. and Young, A.L. (Eds), ACS. 119-123).

7) Mason, G.W., Williams, G. & Crammer, S.(2006). Employability skills initiatives in higher education: what effects do they have on graduate labour outcomes5 November 2014, http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/rdreports/2003/rd13_03/default.asp

8) .Md Saad, M.S., Robani, A., Jano, Z. & Ab. Majid, I. (2013). Employers’ perception on engineering, information and communication technology (ICT) students’ employability skills. Global J. of Engng. Educ., 15, 1, 42-47

9) Mushi, Renatus Michael (2020) "Assessment of the needs of ICT Skills on Employability in SMEs: A VFT approach," Journal of International Technology and Information Management: Vol. 29 : Iss. 1 , Article 4.

10) Mustapha, R., (2012). The Role of Vocational and Technical Education in the Industrialization of Malaysia as Perceived by Educators and Employers. Doctoral Thesis, Purdue University.

11) Nguyen, N.D., Yoshinari, Y. & Shigeji, M. (2005). University education and employment in Japan: students’perceptions on employment attributes and implications for university education. Quality Assurance in Educ., 13, 3,202-218

12) Ogundele, A. G. (2010). Higher education and employability in the international labor market: the need for technical education. Retrieved from www.cefwa.net/compilation_for_proceedings.pdf - Nigeria.

13) Ogundele, A. G., Feyisetan, C. T. & Shaaba, G. P. (2014). Technical education as a vital tool forskill acquisition through guidance and counselling for nation building. AmericanJournal of Educational Research, 2 (1), 50-53. doi: 10.12691/education-2-1-9.

14) Raheen, U.S. (2010). Information and Communication Technology as a means of achieving the objectives of vision 2020 in Nigeria. Journal of Education Review, 9: 9, 52-57.

15) Scardamalia, M. & C. Bereiter, (2006). Knowledge building: Theory, pedagogy and technology. Th Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences

16) Wickramasinghe, V., & Perera, L. (2010). Graduates’, university lecturers’ and employers’ perceptions towards employability skills. Education+Training, 52(3), 226- 244.

17) Yorke, M. & Knight P.T. (2004), Embedding employability into the curriculum. Learningand Employability Series, Retrieved March 05, 2005, from LTSN Generic Centre Web site: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/publications/learning and employability.

VOLUME 04 ISSUE 11 NOVEMBER 2021