Al-Hikmah University Journal

This study examined the skills required by undergraduate accounting education students for management of small-scale businesses in Kwara state, Nigeria. The study adopted a survey research design which is purely quantitative, using structured questionnaires which were administered to 358 randomly selected owners/managers of small-scale businesses in Kwara state. Data collected was analyzed using mean and standard deviations while PLS-SEM was used in testing the hypotheses. The findings of the study revealed that technical skills, administrative skills, and computer-based skills are highly required by undergraduate accounting education students for management of small-scale businesses in Kwara state, Nigeria. Therefore, the constant business failure observed among accounting education graduates which mostly associated with skills for managing businesses can be drastically addressed and reduced the rate of unemployment among accounting education graduates by instilling in them the required skills for management of small-scale businesses. This study therefore, recommend that the regulatory bodies of the universities that is, national university commission should ensure that undergraduate accounting education students are well exposed to technical, administrative, and computer-based skills formanagement of small-scale businesses before graduating from the university as these would help in successful management of small-scale businesses.