BUSINESS EDUCATION STUDENTS’ ENTREPRENEURSHIP SKILLS ACQUISITION AND THE ATTAINMENT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN PORT HARCOURT
2.1. Introduction
Education lies at the heart of every society. It is a key and a vital element in the broad development of the nation’s youth’s capacity to address and solves difficulties. Education forms the basis for the proactive and positive economic, social and political changes in the society. Education remains the key to empowerment of the people and the nations as a whole (Olawolu and Kaegon, 2012). Education consolidates and builds upon basic education to empower the youth to really live, function as a productive member of the society, earning a living, and contributing to societal progress. Business education continuously builds on the knowledge, skills, values and attitude learnt at the lower phases of education. The greatest weapon against poverty is education of the youths. (Nwangwua, 2007). The author further explains that any form of education that does not equip its beneficiaries with skills to be self-reliant is a faulty system of education. Kaegon (2009) believes that business education must be ready to offer their recipients functional education that will enhance performance as well as assist them to contribute meaning to the economic development of the country. According to Okereke and Okoroafor (2011) the desire of the Nigeria government to attain the vision 20-20:20 20 and Millennium Development Goals (MDG) propelled the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council to revise the secondary education curricula. Thereason for this exercise is the transformation at the curriculum with the entrepreneurial education, informational communication technology (ICT) skills, and civic education and for the nation’s sustainable development. The demand for higher education, particularly university education is on the increase all over the world. Entrepreneurship education prepares youths to be responsible and entering individuals, who become entrepreneurs or entrepreneurial thinkers by exposing them in real life learning experiences where they will be required to think, take risks, manage circumstances and incidentally learn from the outcome (Olawolu and Kaegon, 2012). Ememe (2010) observes that entrepreneurship education enables youths to sekk for success in ventures through one’s effort. Buttressing the above view, Okereke and Okoroafor (2011), asserts that entrepreneurial education and ICT skills have been acknowledged world wide as a potent and viable tools for self-empowerment, job and wealth creation. Business education has three basic career options, such as skilled, vocational option, professional option and executive business education option. (Okoh, 1999). The professional option include: auditing, administration and the accountancy profession (Accounting), therefore, the accounting option is the focus for this study. Business education as a discipline is expected to expose its recipients to diversity curricula, hence, it is that type of education that inculcate in its recipients attitudes, knowledge, skills, values that is required in the business world. This is a means of producing a healthy, literate self-reliant citizen that would create wealth for human development, when they become self-employed, thereby resulting to sustainable nation’s development at large. Business education must have impacted accounting skills and creative knowledge required for employment generation opportunities, such entrepreneurial skills and accounting competences that would also make the business graduates to adopt some strategic survival instincts.
2.2. THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK
Entrepreneurship Theories
2.2.1.Cantillon’s theory (1755)
This theory does not view the entrepreneur as a production factor as such, but an agent that takes on risk and thereby equilibrates supply and demand in the economy. In a neo-classical framework, this function resembles that of the optimizing residual claimant, e.g., the business owner who rents labor and capital from workers and land owners in a world of uncertain demand or production.
