ENTREPRENEURIAL EDUCATION AS A TOOL FOR REDUCING UNEMPLOYMENT IN NIGERIA
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Entrepreneurial education is the incorporation into the student syllabus steps involved in starting a new business based on a recognized business opportunity as well as operating and maintaining that business. The belief of some people is that entrepreneurship education does not need to be taught and therefore, an entrepreneur is born to be so. It should however be noted that for one to be a successful entrepreneur, he/she needs to learn the skills (Griffin and Hammis, 2001).
Entrepreneurial education is designed to teach the skills and knowledge that is needed to be known before embarking on a new business venture. This would enhance necessary identification and avoidance of many pitfalls awaiting the less well trained and vigilant contemporaries. The training in entrepreneurial education may initially be perceived as a cost in terms of time and money but it would eventually be appreciated.
Ogundele (2007) viewed the idea of entrepreneurship as a multidimensional phenomenon. It was found that the processes of emergence, behaviour and performance of indigenous entrepreneurs were separately and in combinations affected not by a single but multiple factors, in ranging degrees. These factors included economic, socio-cultural, ecological, managerial, educational developmental, experiential, technological, structural, ethical and innovative issues. He concluded that any policy designed to change entrepreneurship scenario in Nigeria will require multiple and simultaneous approaches in the development of necessary changes in the behaviour of indigenous entrepreneurs. Akeredolu-Ale (1975) examined the origin and performance of indigenous entrepreneurs. He identified 2 broad categories of factors that affected entrepreneurs. These were the environmental factors and the personal level factors. His conclusion was that the problems that were confronting the indigenous entrepreneurs in Nigeria could only be partly explained by the economic factors.
Nigeria is not left out as part of the changing world economy, which yearns for a more articulate policy on the small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Most world economies are characterized by a large number of Micro/cottage, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) mainly in the informal sector. In many economies, they account for a large segment of productive population. Nigeria falls within this later category of economies. The SMEs in Nigeria account for over 95% of non-oil productive activities outside agriculture, which positions them as potentially strong agents of economic growth and sustainable development (Ubom, 2006). The federal government of Nigeria in her effort to ensure that her citizens are self-employed, established the National Directorate of Employment in 1986. It is the belief of government that this agency will reduce unemployment, which is a bane of our society. The agency’s operations include re-activation of public works, promotion of direct labour, self-employment, organization of artisans into cooperative and encouragement of culture of maintenance and repairs (Onifade, 2001).
Entrepreneurial education is regarded as a natural fit for Business education department of higher institution in Nigeria as most of the departments integrates the functional areas of business, accounting, finance, marketing, management, the legal and economic potentialities in which a new venture operates in a bid to reduce unemployment. It is therefore, important for these categories of students educated in this fields to think like an entrepreneur since they are expected to start their own businesses after graduation or work closely with entrepreneurs (Griffin and Hammis, 2003).
