Fundamental Accounting Skills Required of Business Education Graduates for Sustainable Development in Small and Medium Scale Enterprises Operations in Abia State

Abstract

This study determined the fundamental accounting skills required of business education graduates for sustainable development in small and medium scale enterprises operations in Abia State. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. Three research questions guided the study. Three null hypotheses were formulated and tested at .05 level of significance. The population for the study was 3528 respondents which comprised of 31 business education lecturers teaching at tertiary institutions in Abia State and 3497 managers of registered small and medium scale enterprises with the corporate affairs commission Abia State. Yaro yamane's fomular was used to obtain a sample size of 317 respondents. The instrument for collection was a structured questionnaire. The instrument was validated by three experts: two from the department of Technology and Vocational Education and one from Measurement and Evaluation unit, all from Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT). The reliability coefficient of 0.79 was obtained using Cronbach Alpha method. Copies of the instrument were administered to the respondents by the researcher and the help of five research assistants. 317 copies of the questionnaire were distributed and 308 copies were retrieved representing 97.1 percent return rate. The data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation and t-test statistic. The data analyzed revealed that business education graduates require the abilities to rule the cash book, record transactions in cash book, add up the debit side, add up the credit side, balance the cashbook, bring down the balance and post the cashbook items to the ledger. The study further revealed that these fundamental accounting skills are inevitable skills required of every business education graduates for operational efficiency of SMEs and also for sustainable development of SMEs.It was recommended among others that a strong awareness campaign should be embarked upon by appropriate government organs through free seminars and workshop for business education gradates to sensitize them on the need for acquiring fundamental accounting skills.