ENTREPRENEURIAL COMPETENCIES NEEDED BY BUSINESS EDUCATION GRADUATES FOR MANAGING SMALL SCALE BUSINESSES
ABSTRACT
This study examines entrepreneurial competencies needed by business education graduates for managing small scale businesses. A sample of 100 were composed and used for the study through purposive sampling technique. Three research questions were formulated to guide the study. The instrument used for data collection was questionnaire titled “entrepreneurial competencies needed by business education graduates for managing small scale businesses which was design using Likert – 5- point rating scale. The entrepreneurial competencies needed by business education graduates for managing small scale businesses was specifically used to obtained information base on the research questions. The research questions were answered using mean with standard deviation. It was found that Skills such as welding and fabrication, food and catering services, electrical installation etc can make Nigerian graduates entrepreneurs to reduce unemployment. Creation of jobs for self-employment, stimulation of rural, economic and industrial development are benefits of entrepreneurial education to Nigerian graduates. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that Entrepreneurial education in tertiary institutions should be practically oriented rather than theory as this will exposed the students to various lucrative skills, Access to credits/loans should be granted without collateral in order to make the training realizable and achievable.
CHAPTER ONE/INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Nigeria is bedeviled by a myriad of problems which, despite her oil wealth, inhibit her development and even threaten her continued existence as a sovereign state. Nigeria’s socio-political and economic circumstances give the significant indication that many of her problems stem from an origin of artificial colonial construct which lumped together a variety of separate peoples. Fragmentation of the nation is seen as a distinct possibility unless its citizens can be induced to accept a new sense of Nigerian identity, involving a commitment to the survival of the present state as a cohesive entity. This would necessitate a number of radical changes, not only in the political and economic structure of the country but also in the psychology of the people.
Nigerians have lived through series of administrations underdifferent governments, and the question still arises, ‘is Nigeria a nation at all?’ A critical look at what the government calls reform reveals a personally instituted concept of governance, filling the seats of power with those they believe to be their kin, rather than have professionals in the positions of merit, and a breed of people typified by their integrity of heart, ingrained in the trainings and qualifications they have received in the course of service to the nation. The increasing number of those who are not gainfully employed or adequately educated in the country, remain preys as political tools of violence as it has been seen in the history of violence occurring in the country over a period of time. The country has depended much on oil as its major source of revenue for years, however, the current administration also fails to recognize that the future of the country may very well depend on the economy of its people(the youths), which is possibly the only untapped, ill harnessed, most lucrative resource of the country. If it remains this way in the next ten years, putting into consideration the effect of increased poverty, lack of employment, poor educational system, it is unpredictable what the result will be. The table below shows the statistical data of the rate of unemployment and the population rate from 2006 to 2011 in Nigeria. It is the result of a survey carried out by the National Bureau of Statistics and shows that persons aged 0-14 years constituted 39.6%, those aged between 15-64 (the economically active population), constituted 56.3%, while those aged 65 years and above constituted 4.2%. Analysis of employment data for the past 5 years show that the rate of new entrants into the labour market has not been uniform in the past five years.
- The rate was on the increase from 2007 to 2009 but declined significantly from 2009 to 2010. The rate increased again from 2010 to 2011. Within the five year period, there has been an average of about 1.8 million new entrants into the active labour market per year.
- Governments, or local leaders, who are generally not held accountable for how much money is spent, and how education systems are managed,
- Sufficiency attitude – What is provided for the poor is good enough
- Inadequate pro-poor infrastructure or support systems this makes it difficult to implement successful poverty eradication interventions
- A lack of systematic tracking of pro-poor interventions – in this way, it is extremely difficult to know if the activities and programmes implemented have had any impact at all. Nigeria cannot combat the ills of the society just by raising its budget; there should be a strategic systematic approach to education that would bridge the gap between its service delivery and its effectiveness in the country.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Education in Nigeria is devoid of the element crucial to averting the surging rate of unemployment in the country, therefore the breeding of psychological dependence on direct access to money. Entrepreneurial development through education will advance the economy of the nation; much credence should be given to it and ingrained with focus on profitable personal development. Unemployment prevails in the country, hence, the growth of violence, poverty and segregation amongst citizens, because the educational system itself fails to empower the ones passing through it. This should be the core message of the evolving educational policy of Nigeria which is devoid of a system of education that emphasizes on the need to culture the country’s young through the knowledge of rudimentary entrepreneurial development, common cultural heritage, and identification of exploitable strengths of structures, systems and cultures of others.
Objectives of the Study
The purpose of this study is to examine entrepreneurial competencies needed by business education graduates for managing small scale businesses
Objectively, the study tends to:
- identify skills that can make Nigerian graduates entrepreneurs to reduce unemployment rate.
- examine the benefits of entrepreneurial education among Nigerian graduates.
- describe the challenges faced by Nigerian graduates in entrepreneurial education.
1.4 Research Questions
The following questions were answered t guide the study.
- What are the skills that can make Nigerian graduates entrepreneurs to reduce unemployment rate?
- What are the benefits of entrepreneurial education to Nigerian graduates?
- What are the challenges faced by Nigerian graduates in entrepreneurial education?
1.5 Significance of the Study
The focus of this study brings to the fore the crucial need for entrepreneurial education in Nigeria, putting more consideration on the educational system, strategies and its eventual social developmental effect in the society. The study highlights the problems of the level of education in the country and its equivalence to level of poverty in the society by virtue of lack of employment or knowledge of how to startup businesses. One of the MDG goals highlights education as a critical factor for reducing poverty and dependency in developed nations. Therefore, this thesis contributes to knowledge by identifying what is important to the economy, which is qualitative education focused on the needs of the economy per time, rather than the resolution of the United Nations to increase budgetary details or increasing the number of people that go through school. This is not the first paper on entrepreneurial education; however, it is the first to do a comparative study on what is being implemented by different universities to see its effectiveness in order to ascertain the strategy which would eventually help for the Nigerian economy in truly eradicating unemployment in Nigeria.
1.6 Scope of the Study
The study is specifically limited to entrepreneurial competencies needed by business education graduates for managing small scale businesses
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