| Scope and methodology of study. There have been concerns about the inadequate training in computer skills of graduates of business studies programs in the US in general and Micronesia in particular. This was found to be in sharp contrast to the advances in technology and the proliferation of computers in business operations. According to the South Pacific Commission (1995), " ... there is a widespread belief that many school leavers (in the Pacific, including Micronesia) are inadequately prepared to undertake further education and training, to perform effectively in the (labor) force or to participate successfully in the subsistence sector" (p. 42). The need for this study was established to the effect that the computer applications courses in the business studies programs of Micronesian colleges needed to be reviewed to determine their coverage of the competencies and skills needed for business graduates to succeed at work. Three research questions evolved as to (1) the computer applications courses being offered in Micronesian colleges, (2) those not being offered, and (3) the coverage and relevance of the courses being offered. This research reviews literature on the menacing impact of computer technology on business operations, the dissatisfaction of employers with the training of business graduates, and efforts of some colleges in the attempt to reform their business studies curricula. Content analysis, as a research methodology, was used for this study, utilizing the design to estimate some phenomena and the method of conventional frequency count and qualitative identifications. Limitations of the study are outlined to the effect that it focused on Micronesia and may not be generalizable.; Findings and conclusions. It was found that only the University of Guam (UoG) offered a course in Accounting Information Systems (AIS). UoG and the College of the Marshall Islands (CMI) were the only institutions offering courses in Management Information Systems (MIS). Virtually all the colleges offered courses in introductory computer skills, word processing, spreadsheets, database management, and computerized accounting. No institution had course contents dealing with remote computing, for example, local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), the internet, and the world wide web. There was no coverage of presentation graphics nor desktop publishing by any school as well. In general, with the exception of the introduction to computers category, the coverage and relevance of the course contents of the course outlines (objects of the study) obtained were such that it could be concluded that the course contents of the computer applications courses in Micronesian colleges needed a major revision and that they were not uniform. It was, therefore, recommended that the model used for this analysis could be utilized to effect the necessary changes. One implication of the recommendation was that there would be the need for the schools to cooperate. Two areas of further research were suggested. |
