THE ROLE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF GRADUATE MANPOWER IN LAGOS STATE
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to look into the impact of entrepreneurship education on graduate manpower development in Lagos State. The study’s specific goals were to identify the types of entrepreneurship education programs for graduate manpower development in Lagos state;
determine the extent to which entrepreneurship education improves the production potentials of graduates in Lagos state; determine the extent to which entrepreneurship education improves skill acquisition among graduates in Lagos state; and determine the extent to which entrepreneurship education improves the marketing potentials of graduates in Lagos state.
Six research questions and two null hypotheses led the investigation. The study was designed as a descriptive survey. The sample composition of the study was created using a simple random sampling procedure. This study’s population included eight thousand seven hundred and ninety (8,790) male and female members of 115 registered youth organizations in Lagos state.
The sample included 899 participants from registered youth organizations in Lagos State. The data acquired from the six research questions were analyzed using mean scores and standard deviation, and the two null hypotheses created for the study were tested using t-test analysis.
The findings demonstrated that technical activities can better individuals and nations economically and otherwise, that education provides graduates with manufacturing skills, and that entrepreneurship education improves functional skill acquisition among graduates. Marketing skills training is provided to graduates to boost their awareness and understanding of financial products and services.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
The Study’s Background
Entrepreneurship education is a program or component of a program that prepares individuals to form and/or operate small business enterprises, including franchise operations, for the purpose of performing all business functions relating to a product or service, with an emphasis on social responsibilities, legal requirements, and risks for profit involved in the conduct of private business enterprises.
Entrepreneurship education comprises a self-reliance mindset such as developing a new cultural and productive environment, as well as encouraging new sets of attitudes and culture in order to meet future difficulties (Arogundade, 2011). It entails combining multiple resources to improve value and incorporate change and innovation into the manufacturing process in order to generate income and job possibilities.
According to Osuala (2010), entrepreneurship education has the potential to turn around any society’s economic fortunes by creating jobs and lowering the unemployment rate. Entrepreneurship may assist people in recognizing investment opportunities as well as in harnessing untapped natural resources in the environment to produce goods and services required by the country.
These will, without a doubt, assist to reduce or eradicate poverty and boost per capita income in the country, which is one of the primary goals of entrepreneurship endeavors.
Entrepreneurship education aims to prepare people (particularly young people) to be responsible enterprising individuals who become entrepreneurs or entrepreneurial thinkers by immersing them in real-life learning experiences that allow them to take risks, manage results, and learn from the outcomes of entrepreneurial activities (Suleiman, 2010).
People learn through entrepreneurship education that they can either take or create jobs that allow them to be self-employed. Entrepreneurial education might be provided to interested graduates in Lagos State through workshops, classes, and conferences, allowing them to learn the fundamentals of founding and running their own entrepreneurship enterprises.
Furthermore, Ezeilo (2005) believes that entrepreneurship education prepares persons, particularly teenagers, to choose appropriate employment positions and vocations, as well as to upgrade skills for those who are currently employed in selected occupations. She went on to say that re-training programs are supposed to equip young people for profitable employment as skilled workers in agricultural, home economics, trade, and industrial occupations.
According to Ubah (2013), most rural and urban youths are sensitized and made aware of income-generating enterprises like as poultry management, mechanized farming, cassava processing, soap manufacturing, basket weaving, and others through entrepreneurship education.
As a result, Agboeze (2012) emphasizes that there are numerous entrepreneurship education programs in which graduates are empowered. For example, there are sociological and technological entrepreneurship education programs, as well as agricultural/agro-allied enterprises involving foodstuffs, restaurants, fast food vending, and so on. Quarrying, polishing, and crushing engineering are examples of solid minerals engineering. There are power generation and haulage businesses in power and transportation (cargo and passengers).
Manufacturing and repair of GSM accessories, as well as printing and marketing of Recharge cards, are all part of the information and telecommunications industry. Hotels, lodging, film and home video creation are all part of the hospitality and tourism industry; pipeline building and maintenance, drilling, and refining bye products are all part of the oil and gas industry.
Mobile technology, its introduction and application as part of entrepreneurship education, are widely employed in the globe today. More than any other technology, innovation has had a positive impact on the lives of graduates. The application has given opportunities of various dimensions to all groups of persons and enterprises.
Mobile commerce (M-commerce) refers to any forms of interaction between a consumer and a mobile device (Alex 2010), which may include, but is not limited to, the issuance of electronic coupons and internet buying via a mobile device. Mobile financial services, such as mobile personal banking and payments, fall under this umbrella.
As part of entrepreneurship education in Lagos State, the construction industry has seen a massive increase in construction contracting dominated by expatriate companies with few indigenous companies (Idoro, 2009). Unfortunately, the period also exposed the country’s indigenous enterprises to a low degree of human resource development required for; planning, designing, constructing, and sustaining the scale (in size and number) of government-conceived projects.
There are jobs in the environmental and waste management industry such as refuse collection/disposal, recycling, and drainage/sewage construction. Banking, insurance, and stock trading are all examples of financial banking services. There are machine and tool fabrications in engineering and fabrication work. There is also the building and construction industry, where there are planning and design services for graduate wealth creation.
These entrepreneurship activities are targeted at empowering people to become self-sufficient in entrepreneurship, and Lagos state, which is the subject of this study, is not left out. The state of Lagos possesses sterling attributes such as resourcefulness, initiative, drive, imagination, enthusiasm, zest, dash, ambition, energy, boldness, audacity, and courage, all of which are excellent traits for the development of entrepreneurship.
According to Bennell (2000), governments, NGOs, and international bodies seeking to improve the livelihood of youths could best pursue their empowerment goal by tapping into graduates’ innate resources and building on their strong spirit of risk taking through entrepreneurship education, which could lead to economic empowerment.
According to Ogbe (2006), economic empowerment is a method of motivating individuals in society to be productive and self-sufficient by instilling entrepreneurship skills such as personal business initiatives and basic business growth abilities. In reality, having several profit-generating options is the finest basis for any business’s success.
Profit creation, on the other hand, is determined by the business chosen, one’s self concept, interests, resources, and goals, which would allow the person to attain self-development, self-actualization, and self-fulfillment. According to Idachaba (2006), the primary objective of entrepreneurship efforts is production empowerment.
It is decided by what the individual being trained wishes to produce, how the goods are to be produced, and for whom the goods are to be produced. Personal traits and initiative will dictate what the person produces based on the resources available.
The method of production is determined by the factors of production available to him. Finally, the market determines who receives such commodities. Knowledge of the elements of production that govern how and to whom commodities are produced can be acquired mostly through entrepreneurship training and marketing methods.
Entrepreneurship is regarded as a critical component of the economic and developmental processes in Nigeria and around the world. It is obvious that when people are introduced to entrepreneurship, they will be exposed to opportunities that will allow them to become creative and productive. This will increase employment creation and raise the level of living for individuals in society.
Sanda (2010) saw entrepreneurial education as a necessary component of job creation. He claims that Nigeria and other countries around the world are attempting to boost their citizens’ entrepreneurial capacities in the hope that it will contribute to economic growth and development.
The Nigerian government recognized that in order to economically empower young people (aged 18 to 35), it was necessary to develop the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS), which aims to improve the country’s economy and expand small companies.
Despite all of the economic and other opportunities provided by the Nigerian government, entrepreneurship education has received little or no attention. Entrepreneurship education, like every other aspect of education and empowerment programs in Nigeria, faces a number of challenges that limit its effectiveness in developing graduate manpower, such as a poor and inaccessible road network, insufficient funding, irregular power supply, a lack of security, extensive corruption, and a lack of basic technological skills. As a result, this study, which tries to analyze the influence of entrepreneurship education on graduate manpower development in Lagos State, is necessary.
Statement of the Issue
The current unemployment rate in Lagos state is concerning. The desire to provide jobs in the state is one of the government’s primary goals. The government has evolved ways to provide work opportunities at both the federal and state levels over the years. Because of the state’s dense population, the jobs available appear insufficient.
Because the government has been unable to give adequate economic possibilities, some young people (graduates) have turned to armed robbery, kidnapping, prostitution, and other social vices, making them deviants in society and contributing to national insecurity. This could be because graduates are unaware of the various types of entrepreneurship programs available, necessitating the need for an entrepreneurship education program.
The intolerable percentage of youth unemployment in the country, the low level of living, and the promise of technical transfer, which may be an illusion due to the workforce’s low production capability, have sparked increased interest in entrepreneurial education programs for graduates in Lagos state.
In addition, a critical shortage of skills persists in Lagos State. Over 80% of youths in Lagos State are unemployed simply because they lack the necessary skills (Akukwe, 2009). Graduate skill shortages are viewed as a limitation to long-term economic growth and a contributing reason to the prevalence of youth unemployment.
Although various attempts have been made in the past to encourage graduates to engage in entrepreneurial activities in Lagos state, these initiatives have failed to achieve the expected results. Various constraints, such as a poor and inaccessible road network, insufficient funding, irregular power supply, a lack of security, extensive corruption, and a lack of basic technological skills, have severely hampered the implementation processes of the Lagos state entrepreneurship education program.
Furthermore, the ability to produce, utilise knowledge, and market products has become a crucial aspect in growth, and it is vital to a country’s competitive advantage. Education for a knowledge economy should develop the highly skilled, adaptable, and human capital required to compete in global marketplaces.
With the global move to a knowledge-based economy affecting nearly every nation and creating a more competitive field, it is more important than ever to prepare our graduates for the challenges ahead through entrepreneurship, production, and marketing skills.
Nigeria is ranked 115th in the world in terms of competitiveness (behind Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, and Cameroon), according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report for 2012-2013. Though Nigeria’s current position is an improvement over prior years, it demonstrates that the country’s production is rather low. Unless effective solutions are implemented to reverse this trend, future generations and the workforce (including graduates) would always rank bottom in development rankings.
As a result, the researcher investigates entrepreneurship education for graduate manpower development in Lagos state.
The Study’s Purpose
The overall goal of this research is to look into the impact of entrepreneurship education on graduate manpower development in Lagos State. The study specifically wanted to:
Identify the various types of entrepreneurship education programs available in Lagos state for graduate manpower development.
Determine the extent to which entrepreneurship education improved graduates’ production potential in Lagos state.
Determine the extent to which entrepreneurship education improved skill development among Lagos state graduates.
Determine the extent to which entrepreneurship education improved graduates’ marketing potential in Lagos State.
Determine the elements that are working against the provision of entrepreneurial education for graduate manpower development in the state of Lagos.
Investigate ideas for improving entrepreneurial education offerings in Lagos State for graduate manpower growth.
The Study’s Importance
This study’s conclusions will have theoretical and practical implications. The study is theoretically based on Schultz’s human capital theory, which he proposed in the 1960s. This philosophy holds that individuals are essential factors of production in any organization. It, along with other elements such as land, labor, and capital, is a factor of production. However, human talents are activating and utilizing these aspects for optimal output.
As a result, without personnel development, other societal variables and resources will not be utilized. This notion is consistent with the current study, which is aimed at providing graduates with the necessary skills for effective production and self-reliance.
In practice, the study’s findings will be extremely beneficial to graduates, adult education facilitators, curriculum experts, the government, future scholars, and the entire society. Graduates will benefit from the findings because they will be able to actively engage in income-generating business establishment, which will alleviate poverty and the rate of unemployment among them in Lagos State. It will empower them to be creative and imaginative, as well as to awaken dormant potentials for future commercial initiatives.
Furthermore, the outcomes of this study will be extremely beneficial to adult education facilitators. This research will allow them to update their expertise and teaching methods in order to deliver entrepreneurship education and economic empowerment to various groups of individuals, including graduates.
Curriculum experts will also profit from this research. The findings will help them to periodically update and change entrepreneurship education curriculum for graduates in order to match the dynamism and needs of the national economy and higher productivity. This research will also guarantee that entrepreneurship education is adequately interwoven into the curriculum of all levels of education, allowing students to identify viable business prospects in their field of study.
On the government side, the study’s findings will aid the government by drafting legislation to improve entrepreneurship education for graduates. Similarly, the outcomes of this study will encourage the government to build small business schools in which interested graduates and community people can enroll and have their abilities for self-sufficiency enhanced.
This research will help the government build an innovative college geared at cultivating the specialized talents required for effective business management, such as marketing skills, production skills, and skill acquisition programs.
Research Issues
The study will be guided by the following research questions:
What types of entrepreneurship education programs are available for graduate manpower development?
To what extent has entrepreneurial education increased graduates’ production potential in Lagos state?
To what degree has entrepreneurship education aided graduates’ skill acquisition in Lagos State?
To what extent has entrepreneurship education improved graduates’ marketing potential in Lagos state?
What were the reasons working against successful entrepreneurial education provision for graduate manpower development in Lagos State?
What are the measures for improving entrepreneurial education in Lagos State for graduate manpower development?
Hypotheses
For the study, the following null hypotheses were developed and will be evaluated at the 0.5 level of significance:
HO1: In Lagos state, there will be no significant difference in the mean evaluations of male and female graduates on the amount to which entrepreneurship education boosted skill acquisition for graduate manpower growth.
HO2: There will be no statistically significant differences in the mean ratings of male and female graduates on the extent to which entrepreneurship education improved marketing potentials for graduate manpower development in Lagos state.
The Study’s Scope
The study was conducted in the state of Lagos. In Lagos State, the study focused on entrepreneurial education for graduate manpower development. This study’s content coverage was limited to some major areas such as examining the types of entrepreneurship programs for graduate manpower development,
the extent to which entrepreneurship education enhances graduates’ production potentials, the extent to which entrepreneurship education enhances graduates’ skill acquisition, the extent to which entrepreneurship education enhances graduates’ marketing potentials, and factors militating against the provisions of entrepreneurial education for graduates.
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THE ROLE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF GRADUATE MANPOWER IN LAGOS STATE