Abstract
The world of work demands for complex skills and retraining of workforce necessitate the move
of education from schooling to learning with emphasis on competence development. This paper
investigated the state of digital competence, information literacy and approaches for leveraging
digital learning among trainee teachers in two selected Higher Education institutions in Nigeria.
The population of study was undergraduate students studying education in two selected Higher
Education institutions. The survey research design was adopted for the study. Purposive
sampling technique was used to select the participants. One hundred and twenty (120)
questionnaires were distributed to the participants who had a response rate of 62.5%. Data was
collected with a self-structured questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics. Findings
showed that majority of the trainee teachers possessed high digital competence (Mean=3.21);
trainee teachers reported themselves to have high information literacy level (Mean=3.23).
Approaches to leverage digital learning as suggested by the respondents were by stimulating
public discourse that give better understanding and accessibility to ICT development and by
creating a favourable environment for ICT development. Lack of ICT supported institutional
practices and policies were the factors confronting effective digital learning. The study
recommended that librarians and information professionals (LIPs) should organise training on
how to protect digital content and apply privacy and copyright rules for trainee teachers. Also,
higher education institutions should provide enabling environment with accessibility to ICT for
digital learning.
Keywords: ICT, digital competences, digital learning, higher institutions, information literacy,
trainee teachers, Nigeria.
Publication Date: 2025-02-13