ADMINISTRATIVE SUPERVISORS’ RATING OF DESKTOP PUBLISHING COMPETENCIES POSSESSED BY OFFICE TECHNOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT GRADUATE WORKERS IN NORTH-WEST NIGERIA POLYTECHNICS

This study on supervisors’ rating of Office Technology and Management (OTM) graduate workers competencies in using MS Desktop publishing in North-West Nigerian polytechnics was necessitated by persistent complaints from employers of labour that OTM graduate workers do not perform as expected in the current era of technology. One research question guided the study, and two null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance using T-test. Descriptive survey research design was used for the study. The population of the study constituted 378 supervisors in state and federal polytechnics in North-West Nigeria. The population was used as the sample. A structured 5-point rating scale questionnaire containing 16 items were developed and validated by experts. Reliability of the instrument was established using split half method and Pearson Product Moment Co-efficient Correlation formula and obtained a reliability co-efficient value of 0.77. The data collected was analysed with mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions and determine homogeneity or otherwise of the respondents. Findings revealed that administrative supervisors in polytechnics in North-West Nigeria rated their Office Technology and Management (OTM) graduate workers as fairly possessing desktop publishing competencies. Gender and the ownership of the institutions have no influence on the respondents’ ratings. Based on the findings, it was concluded that OTM graduate workers in Polytechnics in North-West Nigeria, do not possess the relevant desktop publishing competencies. It was recommended that The OTM graduate workers should engage in in-service training programmes to improve their competencies in desktop publishing. The administrative supervisors should recommend approval of in-service training for their OTM graduate workers to enhance their computer application competencies.


INTRODUCTION
Office Technology and Management (OTM) graduates are referred to as employees who graduated from the Nigerian Polytechnics, having undergone the training of office technology and management curriculum and have satisfied the requirement of graduation at either National or Higher National Diploma level. The graduates are trained to provide secretarial services using modern office automation tools to enhance effective service delivery for the achievement of the organizational goals. Adelekin (2009) was of the view that, for the Office Technology and Management graduates to be competent in their works, they must be provided with necessary skills and modern facilities for training. Agoha ( 2011) asserted that the contemporary skills expected of OTM graduates are those that would make them well-fit, competent and independent in the technologies of the 21st centuries.
However, the designation of OTM graduates in the global age appeared doubtful. The  Alfred (2014) opined that OTM graduate, even though advertisement for jobs still focused on secretaries, lack occupational nomenclature. This presumes that, the essential office worker has no clear designation.
Going by the National Board for Technical Education, NBTE ( 2004) curriculum and course specification, one of the objectives stated categorically is to produce graduates of ND/HND OTM who should fit properly into the modern office of any kind and perform professionally the functions of a secretary. Hence, this cleared all doubts on the designation of OTM graduates workers. In the context of this paper, office technology and management graduate worker is the one who is proficiently trained, with NBTE curriculum in the Nigerian polytechnics to acquire either National or Higher National Diploma certificate, with the aim to serve as a secretary.
An administrative supervisor is a higher officer in an organization who mentors the works of subordinates in the work place. He manage their activities towards achieving the set goals and objectives of the organization. James 1967) explained that an administrative supervisor, being a professional employee, is in charge of developing and promoting harmonious working relationship among his subordinates. This means that administrative supervisors are in the better position to assess the level at which the graduate workers possess the required competences to effectively do their jobs. Abdullahi (2010) maintained that the administrative supervisor is a person who direct and oversees works done by others. Since administrative supervisors are saddled with supervision, they can participate in activities associated with human resource management in organizations. This study viewed administrative supervisors as principal officers who mentor secretaries, otherwise office technology and management graduate workers in the Nigerian polytechnics.
Competency is the ability to carry out responsibility as expected. It is the acquired knowledge, skills and procedure that enable workers to meet established performance criteria in organizations. Okolocha, C.C. & Olanye ( 2015) viewed computer application competency as the ability to use correct procedure to manipulate the computer as required in order to obtain results. Among the computer applications, MS publisher is inclusive.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
In today's technological era, there is the need for graduates to possess ICT skills in order to secure and perform well in employment. In line with this, office technology and management (OTM) graduates are expected to possess both practical and theoretical skills in ICT based courses of the curriculum objectives. However, there is an emerging challenge regarding the OTM graduate workers exposure on desktop publishing application. This application is one of those that the graduates receive training, with the expectation of offering better performance in the office. Grace (2015) observed that, most OTM graduate workers in south-west of Nigeria were not performing as expected due to either inadequate modern training facilities or teachers' exposure to use modern machines. This, according to the author, will surely mar the environmental replication of work in their training institutions. This stimulated some supervisors of the products of this programme, after assessing the competencies of the graduates on desktop publishing, to recommend that greater emphasis be placed on teaching the computer based courses so that the graduates can become more competent in their use.
The problem of this study is that, the Polytechnics that celebrated the graduation of these graduates all the times do not seem to have assessed the knowledge of their competencies level on desktop publishing to confirm the view of other employers.
Since the Polytechnics in the north-west Nigeria employ some of these OTM graduate workers, it is considerably necessary that their administrative supervisors should rate them on the desktop publishing which is very vital to their regular functions, to ascertain their competencies for an improved productivity in an office.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The main purpose of the study was on administrative supervisors' assessment of The author added that desktop publishing methods provide more control over design, layout, and typography than word processing. Okoye ( 2012)  The purpose of the study was to assess the computer skills needed by personal secretarial assistants in private limited liability companies in the south-eastern Nigeria.
The study stressed that computer knowledge is the necessary requirement for the The researchers adopted a survey research design and z-test for the null hypothesis.
The purpose was to determine supervisors' rating of competencies possessed by OTM graduate workers in public organization in Katsina state. The study suggested that, with advent of information and communication technology, organizational effectiveness depends on its secretarial services. Modern work now goes beyond manual processing of information. The researchers observed that desktop publishing competencies possessed by the secretaries could not be ascertained without empirical study. The analysis revealed a negative response from the respondents which means that there were some challenges in the use of desktop publishing as rated by the supervisors in Katsina State of Nigeria. However, previous study was narrowed to one state while the present study covered seven states in the North-west Nigeria.
Additionally, both researches differed in the population.

CHUKWUKELU AND ILE ( 2018) OFFICE COMPETENCIES REQUIRED OF BUSINESS EDUCATION GRADUATES FOR EFFECTIVE PERFORMANCE IN MODERN OFFICE IN IMO STATE, NIGERIA.
The researchers adopted a descriptive survey research design. The rational for the study was to find out the Office competencies required of business education graduates for effective performance in Modern Office in Imo State, Nigeria. Two research questions and two null hypotheses were employed in the study. The instrument for data collection was a structured four point rating scale questionnaire.
Data were analysed using mean and standard deviation, while the null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance using z test. The researchers concluded that business education students were not equipped with necessary competencies. The researchers recommended that lecturers should emphasise on equipping students with desktop publishing competencies for effective performance. However, the previous research was carried out in one state out of the 36 states of Nigeria, z-test was also used. The present study was conducted in seven states of Nigeria and t-test was used. But both researches were similar since they tried to assess competencies in using desktop publishing. Generally, none of the reviewed studies above used t-test in the hypothesis testing. This lapse created a gap which the present study filled.  Standard deviations shows that the respondents' are homogenous in their ratings.   The finding further revealed that administrative supervisors in polytechnics in North-West Nigeria do not differ significantly in their mean ratings on the competencies of OTM graduate workers in desktop publishing application. It is also in consonance with Haro and Nwazor (2016) that discovered no significant difference exist on the mean ratings of supervisors of public organizations in Katsina State regarding the OTM graduate workers competency possessed in using desktop publishing application.

RESULTS AND FINDINGS
However, the finding is in disagreement with Chukwumezie (2006)