Editorial Board

A Refereed Monthly International Journal of Management

A Study on Role of ICT in the Skills Development of Management Students

Dr. Nitin Kalla

Assistant Professor,

MATS University

Mail-id:- nitinkalla7386@gmail.com

                                                                     Abstract

Knowledge and skills are important drivers of macroeconomic growth and socioeconomic stability. The study addressed the significance, role, and necessity of a skills development and capacity building programme as a guiding principle in education. In today's world, organisations require a diverse set of skills to easily carry out complex enterprise activities. In today's virtual age, organisations use the internet as a sole / trade channel to compete globally – this has undoubtedly created a demand urgency for brand new skill-units. Students must understand that a bachelor's degree in business administration is not enough to qualify for a job. When hiring management graduates, employers look for specific skills in addition to a degree in business administration. These skills are defined based on the type of work that these students will be required to do after joining the organization. This research paper tries to identify the skills required by management institutions and role of ICT in skill development of management students. Entrepreneurship skills, Communication skills and soft skills have been identified for the study. The method followed in this paper is a mix of literature overview and statistical analysis of quantitative information. This paper tries to provide an insight on the role of ICT in skill development of management students.

Keywords: Skill Development, Entrepreneurial Skills, Communication Skills, Soft skills, ICT, Management Institutions.

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Introduction

ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) are playing a growing role in the educational system. Many aspects of people's lives have been altered as a result of it. These changes have caused educational institutions, administrators, and teachers to reconsider their roles, teaching, and future vision. ICT has seen the emergence of new challenges for quality education among students (Saravanakumar 2014)                                   

ICT in Management Education

ICT in education simply means using ICT to teach and learn. It has become an essential component of the educational system. It has gradually transformed educational society into knowledge and information society, transforming the economy into a knowledge economy and assisting nations in creating wealth through knowledge exploration. It is a cutting-edge, high-quality technological approach that has a significant impact on the educational system. It has brought about qualitative changes, increased productivity, and altered the overall style and operation of the educational system as well as its governance. It has contributed, is contributing, and will continue to contribute significantly to the advancement of education.

Management education is critical for personal development because it provides students with the opportunity to face company challenges and hone their internal skills in order to develop a modern perspective and global mindset. More emphasis is placed on student performance for work that requires professional skills. Students should practice their communicative and team-building skills in addition to subject-specific work.

Need for skills development

To carry out complex business activities smoothly, modern organizations in today's challenging and fast-paced technocratic environment require a variety of skills such as – technical, cognitive, interpersonal, social, hard & soft skills, and so on. In today's digital age, where organizations use the internet as a sole / alternate channel to compete globally, there is an increased demand for new skill-sets. These skill sets are beneficial to the country's economic development. Employers are becoming increasingly concerned about the difficulties of dealing with rapid technological changes. They have expressed their dissatisfaction by raising their eyebrows at the skill level of recent graduates. According to recent reports, students in academia are only trained on technical topics related to their field of career/discipline, with little or no emphasis on soft skills development. As a result, many management degree holders are having difficulty finding work due to a lack of industry-ready talent and skills. It is critical for students to improve their skills. Soft skills training institutes, both new and established, are in high demand and need from both industry and the general public, as they are critical to students' employability and success. . Changing times have increased the importance of cultivating current education standards, thereby enhancing current education curriculum with a soft-skills development initiative. These abilities would also aid in a student's overall personality development. This will not only provide students with good computer skills, but will also improve their communication and problem-solving abilities, shape up their ability to demonstrate good leadership qualities, make strategic & long-term plans to achieve departmental / organizational goals, initiate fast decision-making in a tense & ever-changing environment juggling for success, and develop strong work ethics, among other things. One of the key solutions for fully utilizing our manpower resources is to produce the required amount of highly skilled manpower at a faster rate. (Anjali 2009)

Review of Literature

 (European Commission 2007) The European Union is increasingly shifting toward a service-based economy, with a focus on developing and deploying ICT. Government supports the development of latest skills for European residents as training for assembly labour marketplace needs. Via introducing specific ICT tools, entrepreneurial skills might be promoted amongst young people to reduce the unemployment.

Richa & Ritika(2007) Skill development in business News is important for management graduates which Enables Better Employability of Management Graduates. Employability Competencies are Necessary for Performance in the Business Environment. Personal Skills will be useful for Management Graduates in effectively interacting with others in the organization Life Skills and interpersonal skills will help the management students to effectively interact with other organizations as well.

Padmini (2012) has identified that the insufficient skill set of the workforce is the major stumbling block in any sector's growth path. She has also identified the employability skills required by recent graduates and evaluated how value can be created through effective knowledge management in terms of pedagogy, evaluation process, and feedback mechanisms.

According to Robles (2012), "even though management students have full command over subject and theoretical aspects, they lack in performing effectively and efficiently due to a lack of soft skills."

(Bedwell et. al, 2013). Soft skills such as communication, interpersonal relationships, and critical thinking are important in higher level management and leadership positions in the workplace.

 Nishad Nawaz and Krishna Reddy (2013), Improving employability skills among management students is a critical task for all institutions that offer management programmes. They have also stated that MBA graduates' language competency and cognitive skills will be improved through this.

Kaptan (2014) The study discussed the importance, role and necessity of the skills development and capacity building program as a principle of purpose in education. Education to meet the needs of the industry and labour market, improvement of workforce quality and competence through qualification programmes, because the traditional education system lacks synergies between industries and institutions. To accomplish the mission, the educational institution must be actively involved.

(Richa and Runma 2017) In today's business environment, skill development is critical for management students. Graduates of the School of Management will have better job opportunities as their skills develop. Work skills are required for employment in a business setting. Humanities skills are extremely valuable for School of Management graduates. Interact with others in the organization effectively.

(Zarina & Misba, 2017) To outperform the rest of the world in all aspects of management, India's future managers must possess certain skills. As a result, every university should collaborate with a diverse range of employees to create courses centered on current government initiatives such as Indian Skills, Startup India, and Digital India.

Sanket and Ravan (2016), all MBA students must have employability skills in order to get a job. He has concluded that students' interpersonal skills, communication skills, decision-making skills, and leadership skills must be developed.

Padmakali and Kumar (2016) provided an overview of recent trends in management students' current employability skills and skills required by industry. They came to the conclusion that the Management curriculum should be revised at both the graduate and postgraduate levels. Experiential and action learning should also be integrated into the curriculum. Faculty members should have the opportunity to expand their knowledge of Sustainable Development.

Research Methodology

Sampling Design: Data was collected from the engineering students of both private and government colleges of Raipur, Durg- Bhilai District. Data was collected from the 260 respondents out which 227 were used for the study, 33 samples were rejected due to half filled responses.

Data Collection: Data was collected through structured questionnaire. The variables were identified from the review of literature. The respondents have to give their responses in 5- likert scale i.e 5 for strongly disagree and 1 for strongly agree.

Demographic Data: Demographic factors considered for the study is gender, Different Specialization of engineering students and the Institution category i.e Private and Government.

                                                      Descriptive Statistics (Table No 1)

Reliability and Validity of Data : from the analysis it is found that the Cronbach's Alpha result is 0.812.It is presumed that the Cronbach's Alpha outcome is adequate. Validity of data was found high.

Data Analysis

Hypothesis Test

Table No 2(Gender Basis)

H_01: There is no significant effect of ICT usage in the development of Entrepreneurship skills on gender basis.

Calculated value after test:- 0.047.The above tabular value shows that there is a significance effect of gender on the degree of utilization of ICT in the development of entrepreneurial skills.  

H_02: There is no significant effect of ICT usage in the development of communication skills on gender basis.

Calculated value after test:- 0.644. It shows there is no criticalness impact of gender orientation fair and square of use of ICT in the improvement of communication skills.

H_03: There is no significant effect of ICT usage in the development of Soft skills on gender basis.

Calculated value after test:- 0.826. From the above tabular value it can be seen there is no essentialness impact of gender in the utilization of ICT in the improvement of soft skills.

Table No 3 (Specialization Basis)

H_04: There is no significant effect of ICT usage in the development of Entrepreneurship skills on management specialization students.

Calculated value after test:- 0.034. It shows there is an importance impact of ICT usage in the management specialization for the advancement of entrepreneurial aptitudes.

H_05: There is no significant effect of ICT usage in the development of Communication skills on management specialization students.

Calculated value after test:- 0.002. It shows there is a centrality impact of ICT usage in the management specialization for the advancement of communication abilities.

H_06: There is no significant effect of ICT usage in the development of Soft skills on management specialization students.

Calculated value after test:- 0.183. From the above tabular value it can be seen there is no importance impact of ICT usage in the management specialization for the improvement of soft abilities.

Table No 4 (Institution Categorization)

H_07: There is no significant effect of ICT usage in the development of Entrepreneurship skills on institution categorization.

Calculated value after test:- 0.117. From the above tabular value it can be seen there is no hugeness impact of institution categorization for the development of entrepreneurial aptitudes through ICT.

H_08: There is no significant effect of ICT usage in the development of Communication skills on institution categorization.

Calculated value after test:-0.000. It shows there is a criticalness impact of institution categorization for the development of communication aptitudes through ICT.

H_09: There is no significant effect of ICT usage in the development of Soft skills on institution categorization.

Calculated value after test:- 0.490. It shows there is no noteworthiness impact of institution categorization for the development soft aptitudes through ICT.

Findings and Discussions (Effect of Gender)

Despite the gender of students/researchers it was discovered that gender influences the utilization of ICT empowered assets in the development of entrepreneurial skills in management institutions. The exploration found that both male and female students utilize ICT empowered assets for the improvement of innovative skills. What's more it was seen that males are more oriented towards the development of entrepreneurial skills through ICT tools.

Likewise it was discovered that gender doesn't influence the utilization of ICT empowered assets in the development of communication skills in management institutions. The exploration found that both male and female students utilize ICT empowered assets for the development of communication skills. It was additionally discovered that ICT empowered education is given to them to improve their communication and writing.

Both male and female students are of the view that ICT helps in the development of soft skills. ICT empowered training encourages students to get update and meet with the global standards. ICT assists with doing higher examinations and quest for job and field placement.

Effect of Specialization

It was discovered that specialization influences the utilization of ICT empowered assets in the improvement of entrepreneurial skills in management institutions. The examination found that marketing, IT, and finance specialization are more utilizing ICT empowered assets for the development of entrepreneurial skills as ICT improve their analytical competence, and furthermore guided towards the critical thinking strategies through e-case studies as contrast with the specialization of HR and operations specialization.

Moreover it was discovered that diverse specialization of the management course influences the utilization of ICT empowered assets in the development of communication skills in management institutions. The exploration found that marketing, HR and operation specialization concurred that ICT empowered assets causes improvement of communication skills as  ICT enabled resources helps them in the development of communication skills because through this students and researchers interaction increases with the teachers, information can be easily gather  and also ICT enabled education enhances their communication and writing skills as as contrast with the specialization of finance and IT specialization

Students from all the specialization of management course opined that ICT helps in the development of soft skills. Management specialization students and researchers consider ICT, to groom their overall personality which raises their confidence which also helps to improve their performance in the examination. 

Effect of Institution Category

Despite of the institute classification it was discovered that ICT empowered tools helps in the development of entrepreneurial skills in management institutions. The examination found that government and private institutes utilize ICT empowered assets for the improvement of innovative abilities of students. Likewise it was seen that institutes are engaged to improve the scientific ability, and furthermore guided towards the critical thinking strategies through e-contextual analyses.

Furthermore, it was discovered that the class of the institution influences the use of ICT-enabled resources in the improvement of communication skills in management institutions. The exploration found that private institutes are more utilizing ICT empowered resources for the development of communication skills as compare to the government institutes because ICT changes the method of correspondence it gives supplement of face-to-face correspondence.

Both government and private institution categorization of students and researchers are of the very view that ICT helps in the improvement of soft skills. ICT is considered helpful to groom their overall personality which raises their confidence.  ICT empowered resources provided at both government and private organization causes students and researchers to do higher studies and quest for occupations and field placement.

Conclusion

In the last two decades, the use of ICT has fundamentally changed nearly all forms of endeavor within all forms of educational institutions for providing quality education. In the coming years, ICT, in particular, will play a larger role in the field of education. ICT has emerged as an important component in the field of education at the present and in the near future. In today’s converting global concerning industry and the task marketplace, there is now a severe want for skilled workers. The research study concludes that ICT is proved to be helpful in the development of Communication skills and soft skills in a similar on gender basis, while male students use more ICT for the development of entrepreneurial skill. Students use ICT enabled tools for the development of entrepreneurial and communication skills irrespective of their specialization. No difference was experienced in the development of entrepreneurial and soft skills through ICT on both Government and private institutions. Hence study concludes that ICT is an important tool for the development of various skills among the management students.

References

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• Banerjee Padmakali and Patter Yogesh Kumar, “Perceived Competencies and Employability Level of Management Students”, International Journal of Engineering and Management Sciences, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 41-45, 2016.

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