1.1 Introduction
Entrepreneurship Education is a course or programme that seeks to provide final-year students the knowledge, understanding, and inspiration they need to launch, grow, plan, and successfully operate their preferred business. A wide range of people find that the terms used in entrepreneurship education are relevant to their ideals and personal experiences. According to Nwabuama (2004), entrepreneurship involves identifying the traits shared by successful entrepreneurs and teaching aspiring business owners the management skills they will need to perform well as long-term employees of a company once they have acquired the necessary occupational skills. Similarly, according to Ebele (2008), entrepreneurship involves imparting information and skills to students so they may organise, launch, and manage their own businesses.
This chapter will provide the background information that lead to the research's inception, the challenges that prompted the study, its aim, and its objectives as a preface to future study sections. The others include the study's significance, its scope, its research questions and hypotheses, its limitations, and a definition of terms.
1.2 Background of Study
Entrepreneurial education has been applied to the twenty-first century. This is due to the fact that entrepreneurs, both male and female, have transformed nations by taking risks with different resources including time, money, and energy to start and operate their own companies. Nigerian entrepreneurial growth is seeing resurgence due to the unacceptably high young unemployment rate, the low standard of life, and the prospect of technical transfer. Some people contend that since there's no need to teach entrepreneurship, entrepreneurs come naturally. Notably, developing the requisite skills is a prerequisite for success as an entrepreneur. (Gryphon and Hammis, 2001).
In 1734, Cantillon used the term "entrepreneur" to refer to someone who takes on the risk of making a profit or losing money. Our economy is mostly driven by entrepreneurship, which is the cornerstone of the global economy and produces employment and money through small firms launched by enterprising people that eventually expand into larger enterprises.
In 1986, Nigeria's federal government founded the National Directorate of Employment in an effort to guarantee self-employment for its inhabitants. The government believes that this institution will help with the issue of unemployment in our society. Reviving public works projects, promoting direct labour, encouraging self-employment, organising craftsmen into cooperatives, and fostering a culture of upkeep and repairs are only a few of the activities carried out by the association (Onifade, 2001).
The globe is now going through a very difficult period, and Nigeria as a nation cannot escape it; instead, we must find solutions to some of the issues we face. Nigeria is presently confronted with a number of pressing issues, such as a recession, high unemployment, poverty, inadequate healthcare, and insecurity. These issues cannot be resolved if the country fails to foster entrepreneurship, which will increase youth employability. The goal of entrepreneurship education is to educate responsible, autonomous, and self-sufficient thinkers who will contribute to economic progress, especially among the youth who are still developing. It promotes creativity, invention, and idea visualization rather than merely teaching people how to launch a business. Education seeks to build students' personalities while simultaneously providing opportunities for all-around growth.
Introducing and fostering entrepreneurial mindsets in pupils is covered by tactics used in entrepreneurship education. Through entrepreneurship education, students are able to display initiative, creative ideas, self-discipline in starting activities, and the extra information, skills, and talents needed in the context of establishing a new enterprise or firm. The goal is to generate graduates from universities who possess an entrepreneurial mindset and are aware of the difficulties in raising funds for the establishment of a firm. Beginning in elementary school and continuing through all educational levels, it is a process of lifetime learning.
Moreover, the study of entrepreneurship will impart and introduce students and aspiring business owners to entrepreneurial principles and abilities, such as the capacity for opportunity identification and creation, leadership, independence, innovation, and creativity, as well as competitiveness and independence. More importantly, it is the inclusion of the procedures needed to launch, run, and manage a new firm on the basis of an established business opportunity in the curriculum for students. It will improve the critical recognition and avoidance of several issues that the less experienced peers may encounter. Although the entrepreneurship education programme may at first be seen as a time and financial expense, in the long run, it will be valued.
Employability is a lifelong learning process, which implies that learning never ends once one is working. Develop by a Mumbai-based student named Rashid Khan, employability is a management philosophy that acknowledges that market success and employment are not just dependent on the wisdom of upper management, but also on the initiative, creativity, and capabilities of all workers. Employability is defined by Lee Harvey as a graduate's capacity to land a fulfilling job. According to Harvey, obtaining a job shouldn't take precedence over being ready for work in order to prevent the creation of a fictitious employability index. According to Lee, employability is not a "product" but rather a learning process as it is a combination of experience and qualities that are acquired via advanced education rather than a specific set of abilities.
The Phillips Consulting Education and Employability Report (2014) emphasizes the need for skills like critical thinking, interpersonal relationships, technology proficiency, etc., but these are not taught in our universities to prepare students for the workforce, making them unemployed in the eyes of the public.
Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to examine entrepreneurship education as a determinant of employability among Babcock University students.
1.3 Statement of Problems
Investigation revealed that the educational system in Nigeria produces graduates from around 150 universities, 50 polytechnics, and 50 monotechnics, but these graduates are primarily dependent on white-collar occupations for their subsistence. The system does not sufficiently prepare its graduates to be self-reliant.
It has been estimated that each year, 80% of graduates struggle to find employment, and yet not much has been done to address this issue. But entrepreneurship education may close this gap by preparing undergraduates to become profitable business owners, which will lead to the creation of jobs.
Other than what they learn from books, they lack the necessary abilities to be independent. A crucial component of businesses and the economy at large is the entrepreneurial skills that are learned via entrepreneurship education. It helps the government and people alike create wealth, reduce poverty, generate income, and create new jobs in enormous quantities.
Even though there have been multiple attempts in the past to promote entrepreneurial activities in Nigeria, it is worth noting that these initiatives have not yielded the expected results because of a number of constraints, including inadequate and inefficient infrastructure, overbearing bureaucracy, and poor implementation. Thus, the purpose of this study is to ascertain how the entrepreneurship curriculum at Babcock University has equipped students for future job obstacles and how much entrepreneurship curriculum influences students' employability.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to examine the Entrepreneurship Education as a Determinant of Employability Among Babcock University Students using the final year students of the university as a case study. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To find the impact of entrepreneurship education on Babcock University students;
- To ascertain the performance of Babcock University's students in the course on entrepreneurship education; and
- To determine whether entrepreneurship education can be a significant determinant of employability among Babcock University students.
1.5 Research Questions
The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:
- Will entrepreneurship education significantly determine employability among Babcock University Students?
- What is the impact of entrepreneurship education on Babcock University students?
- What is the performance of Babcock University's students in the course on entrepreneurship education?
1.6 Research Hypothesis
In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.
Hypothesis One
- H0: Entrepreneurship education will not significantly determine employability among Babcock University students.
- H1: Entrepreneurship education will significantly determine employability among Babcock University students.
1.7 Significance of Study
The move by the government through the Federal Ministry of Education to make entrepreneurship education one of the compulsory general studies for students in universities across the country should be seen as a positive step in the right direction. This is to inculcate in the youths the spirit of self reliance.
This development will not only address the problem of unemployment and underemployment but will also ensure an entrepreneurial human capacity for national development and also give students an alternative career option and the confidence that they can set up their own business or social enterprise.
The significance of this study brings to knowledge the crucial need to increase employability through the use of entrepreneurship education putting more consideration on the educational system and its developmental effect in the society.
The study highlights the problems of lack of employment or knowledge of how to start-up businesses; the resultant effect of which is a society that breeds healthy partnership and motivation. However, the contribution of this research work to knowledge identifies what is important to the economy, which is qualitative entrepreneurship education in increasing employment which is the focus need of the economy.
1.8 Scope of Study
The scope of the research is focused on the Entrepreneurship Education as a Determinant of Employability Among Babcock University Students using the final year students of the university as a case study.
1.9 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, there were some problems encountered which stood as limitations to the research work. Some of the limitations include:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
- Initial Cooperation Delay from Respondents: A particular limitation of this work came as a result of the respondent refusal to offer their cooperation at the initial time they were contacted. This contributed in making the success of this research study difficult.
1.10 Definitions of Terms
Impact:
Impact is defined as the action of one object coming forcibly into contact with another or a marked effect or influence.
Organization:
An organization or organization is an entity comprising multiple people, such as an institution or an association, which has a collective goal and is linked to an external environment
Creativity:
Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and somehow valuable is formed. The created item may be intangible or a physical object.
Innovation:
Innovation is often also viewed as the application of better solutions that meet new requirements, unarticulated needs, or existing market needs.
Entrepreneurial:
Entrepreneurial is a person who organizes and manages any enterprise, especially a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk.
Entrepreneur:
It is a person that singlehandedly start his/her own business with initiative and insight of growing this business using the skills, talents and ideas acquired. This individual prefers to be self-employed rather than be employed; he/she handles the risk of the business and also enjoys the profit generated from this same business.
Entrepreneurship:
It is the ability to start up, develop, organise and manage a business venture been fully aware of its risks and challenges and also its profits and gains. Education: it is the process of going through trainings, acquiring knowledge, giving or receiving systematic information in order to facilitate learning and also the ability to put into practise what has been learnt.
Entrepreneurship Education:
This is a programme or course offered by all final year students of Babcock University which seeks to provide students with necessary information, insights and ideas on how to start, develop, organise and manage a business of their own. It deals with creativity.
Employability:
It involves essential skills and abilities that enables one to be gainfully employed into the various employment opportunities thereby reducing the unemployment rate in the country.
Unemployment:
It is economic situations in which individuals that is willing and able to work, are not presently working because they could not get gainfully employment
Entrepreneurship Skills:
These are the necessary set of skills required to be possessed by an entrepreneur in order to run a business successfully
Self Employment:
This is when an individual takes up the risk of starting; managing, directing and organising his/her own business with the purpose of increasing the economic growth and also to maximize profit.
