EMPLOYEES’ OFFICE SKILLS REQUIRED BY EMPLOYERS IN MODERN BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS IN RIVERS STATE

Abstract

It is imperative to conduct regular analysis in designing and implementing any functional curriculum. Therefore, educational processes must consider the needs of the society and the individuals in its service delivery. The business world in recent times has witnessed lots of changes especially with advent of information technology leading to newer method of doing things. The office of any business organization is at the centre of these changes. Hence, the study was to investigate the employer's demand and modern office work skills required of secretaries in modern organizations in Rivers State. A self-structured questionnaire validated by experts in business educators was used as instrument for data collection. The population of the study consisted of heads of departments, directors, chief executives, and managers in private and public organizations in Rivers State. Two research questions and two hypotheses were answered and tested of0.05 level of significance. Among other things, the study revealed that the various skills identified by the study in cluster of word processing office work skills, interpersonal/human relation office work skills were all required office work skills demanded by the employers in the modern office. Based on the findings, it was recommended that, the curriculum of the office education programme be reviewed to accommodate these identified skills training and retraining, workshops, seminars were also recommended for the trainers especially in the areas of information technology.