STATE OF KNOWLEDGE OF THE ERP SYSTEMS - RESULTS OF THE PILOT STUDY PERFORMED AMONG MANAGEMENT FACULTY STUDENTS

Today the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are a basic management-aiding tool, common in most enterprises. For many employers the knowledge of the ERP systems and the skills of using their functions are a vital condition considered throughout the recruitment of new employees. With that in mind, it is of key importance for the education programs developed at higher education schools of economics, educating future managers, to include the subjects providing the students with the knowledge of the systems potential and facilitating the students' acquisition of the skills of how to use such systems. Such possibilities are given to the students of the Faculty of Management at the UTP University of Science and Technology in Bydgoszcz, Poland, (UTP), thanks to the ERP systems lectures and computer labs offered as part of the subjects; Information Technology for management, Information systems and knowledge management as well as Integrated management systems. The primary aim of this article has been to present the results of the study verifying the state of knowledge of the ERP systems among the students of the UTP Faculty of Management. The level of knowledge was verified once the lectures and computer labs were completed. The study was performed in January 2016 and it involved a group of 107 students; B.Sc. and M.Sc. students majoring in management as well as M.Sc. students majoring in management and production engineering. The research tool was made up of an online survey with a dozen or so questions; a Google Form. The results of the study demonstrate that the students' ERP systems knowledge is fairly limited. More than 80% of the students do not know any ERP systems other than the system used in class. At the same time the students consider learning the ERP systems functionalities in computer lab purposeful. Half of the students define the ERP system correctly, referring to it, first of all, as "a tool facilitating organization management processes". Employers' requirements and the results of the study justify the need of factoring in the ERP integrated management systems in education programs at higher education schools of economics.