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ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION AS A TOOL FOR REDUCING UNEMPLOYMENT IN NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

The study examines entrepreneurship education as a tool for reducing unemployment in Nigeria. Specific objectives are; to find out if entrepreneurship education has been a useful tool for reducing unemployment in Nigeria, to ascertain if there is compulsory entrepreneurship education for all students in Nigerian higher institutions and to find out if the available entrepreneurship education in institution can stimulate entrepreneurship skills in future graduates. In the methodology, data used for the study was gathered through primary sources (questionnaire). Sampling technique was used to select 200 students from the entire population of Ekiti State University, AOCOED Campus. The data obtained in the field was presented in a tabular form and analyzed through the use of a mean and standard deviation. However, the statistical tool employed to test the hypotheses study is chi-squared. Findings from the study revealed that, lack of entrepreneurship education for learning and improving issues within entrepreneurship - like knowledge and information about different markets - seems to be a significant reason for the lower motivation of Ekiti state students. Nigeria’s educational system will continue to fail, as long as long as more focus is put on how many schools are built, than the effectiveness of the schools being built. The outcome of this study will bring to the fore the crucial need for entrepreneurship education in Nigeria, putting more consideration on the educational system, strategies and its eventual social developmental effect in the society.

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 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

1.  To appraise if educational styles arouse interest of students in the industries of their discipline.

2.  To explore the effectiveness of entrepreneurial development course/training in education in universities that offers it.

3.  To see if the current university educational system stimulates entrepreneurial creativity in its students.

1.4   Research Questions

1.  Can unemployment problem in Nigeria be solved through entrepreneurial development?

2.  Is the entrepreneurial development programmes of government been able to lessen the unemployment problem in Nigeria?

3.  The role of entrepreneurs in economic development is to increasing per capital output and income of a country?

4.  Entrepreneurship facilitates the use of local raw materials and other resources?

5.  Entrepreneurship education promotes interdependence of business in a country?

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 examines the role of entrepreneurial education in the development of Nigeria, its significance in the reduction of unemployment in Nigeria and including a comparison between universities that implement para-entrepreneurship educational systems. The study considered the undergraduates of the current university system, from levels one to the final year, those who gained admission into the university in the last five (5) years. This study period is considered to be relevant because of its immediate impact on the future of Nigeria, through which one can discover if the role education plays currently will facilitate national development. The study considers students and graduates of Covenant University, Ota and Federal University of Technology, Akure as case studies. It is a comparative study between the two universities; the former being a Christian private university, and the latter a federal university. The two universities have embraced entrepreneurial education as part of their curriculums for at least three (3) years.