Entrepreneurship Education and the Challenges of Graduate Employability in Nigeria

Abstract

Entrepreneurship education has been identified as a major means of assisting youths and even adult to acquire desired skills and capacities to be self-reliant or self-employed, particularly to prepare them to be able to set up their own ventures and manage them profitably. Hence, there is a great need to look at the challenges in Entrepreneurship education in Nigerian universities and proffer solutions to the identified problems. The study adopted a review methodology approach of extant literatures and publications in the last decade. The study revealed that there are several factors impeding the success of entrepreneurship education in Nigeria, which might be affecting the production of employable graduates in our universities. The study provided a panacea that will help improve entrepreneurship education in Nigeria, and create graduates that will not only be job seekers, but will be job makers in Nigeria. Conclusively, the study also, suggested areas for further studies based on the limitation of the study.

Entrepreneurship Education Curriculum and Framework for Its Implementation in Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria: Implication for Developing Entrepreneurial Mindset of Students

“…Gorman, Hanlon and King (1997) see entrepreneurship education as an educational programme that is focused on impacting student with issues on entrepreneurship. Chukwudi and Nwosu (2018) identified entrepreneurship education as a major means of assisting youths and even adult to acquire desired skills and capacities to be self-reliant or self-employed, particularly to prepare them to be able to set up their own ventures and manage them profitably. Entrepreneurship education has passed through several development stages.…”

The significance of entrepreneurial culture in Zimbabwean universities: A case study of Chinhoyi University of Technology

“…One of the major challenges hindering the promotion of an entrepreneurial attitude in Zimbabwean universities as stated by the majority of the respondents especially students is the dearth of qualified quality lectures who are well-informed in the field of entrepreneurship as a consequence this is leading to poor quality delivery (Agbonlahor, 2016;Nwosu and Chukwudi, 2018). Furthermore, these lecturers do not have personal experience of entrepreneurship nor have they ever established and operated their own ventures making it difficult for them to teach the subject meritoriously (Molefi, 2015).…”

“…Hence, most of these lecturers carry on focusing on theories leaving out the practical aspects of demonstrative education resulting in producing deficient graduates who are not creative and innovative to start their own entrepreneurial ventures to create employment for themselves and others (Gandawa, 2015;, 2016). Thus, university workforce falls short in the needed required skills, technical knowhow and techniques to inculcate entrepreneurial attitude that constitutes the necessary knowledge, attitudes and skills that guarantee university students to start their own entrepreneurial ventures (Grecu and Denes, 2017;Nwosu and Chukwudi, 2018). Meanwhile, Nwokolo (2015) further states that entrepreneurial is more than educating students to run business ventures but it involves inculcating creative and innovative thinking that promotes a strong sense of reliance and responsibility hence, the need for university lecturers to have knowledge and experience of this kind of subject.…”

“…In addition to the above discussion, downheartedly universities have also been encountering an array of glitches that include poor infrastructural facilities in the form of outdated training equipment; inadequate students exposure through a deficiency of research linkages; a mismatch of curricula and industrial expectations combined with inappropriate teaching methods; lack of trained entrepreneurship lecturers and skilled manpower; lack of finance and access to funds; non favourable policy environment and lack of governmental support; poor perceptions and negative attitudes as well as cultural barriers (Almeida, 2014;Nwosu and Chukwudi, 2018). Furthermore, other scholars contrarily argue that the level of literacy does not necessarily indicate a success in education as long as entrepreneurial culture is nonexistent and this is an issue that is disappointing graduates that after acquiring knowledge they find themselves without a job (Mwenje, 2018).…”

Entrepreneurship skills framework for fostering the employability of industrial technology students

“…There are not many good plans for teaching about starting and running a business. Chukwurah and Akpo [35] Equally, Nwosu and Chukwudi [36] noticed that starting and running new businesses are the main ways new jobs are created in the economy. New businesses create the most new jobs in the economy.…”