CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
One of the goals of education is to ensure that the learning needs of all young people and adults alike are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life skills. As a matter of fact, the provision of vocational skills constitutes an important component in the Nigerian education system. Human resources represent the greatest assets utilized for the efficient and effective management of any organization. Entrepreneurship education has no doubt assumed a new dimension due largely to the contributions it has made towards the growth of the national economy. In the light of this, the nation’s educational regulatory agencies such as the National Universities Commission (NUC), National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE), National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) and others have been mandated to include entrepreneurship education in their curricula (Babalola, 2010). Most developing countries including Nigeria are plagued with high level of unemployment, underemployment, poverty, diseases and acute shortage of infrastructural facilities. The unemployment situation among Nigerian school leavers and graduates as at 2000 was alarming. By the time the military le oice in 1999 high unemployment has already led to increasing poverty and serious social problems in Nigeria (Babalola, 2010). Available information from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that inflation rate is very high at 9.6 percent and unemployment is 24 percent, the highest in about 16 years (Daily Sun, 2016). In order to stem the tide of unemployment in the country, the Obasanjo administration mandated that all university students in Nigeria, regardless of their major, be exposed to entrepreneurship education. This is in realization that Nigeria would need to increasingly globalize its education in two key areas, namely: Information and Communication Technology and Entrepreneurship Education. To this end, the UNESCO’s section for Vocational and Technical Education in cooperation with the National Board for Technical Education in Nigeria anchored the project that aimed to better equip large numbers of young Nigerians for the world of work (UNESCO, 2000).
Today, Nigeria is faced with serious unemployment problem coupled with a declining standard of living, increasing disparity between the urban and rural areas of the country and inadequate social and physical infrastructures to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population (Ferej, 2009). To provide a means of survival, many of the unemployed have turned to doing menial jobs and others are involved in the informal sector to create small enterprises mainly as traders. In the past, a widespread approach to solving the problem of limited job opportunities was through the establishment of large industrial complexes that were expected to provide many jobs and enhance the economic situation of the local area (Charmes, 2010). This approach has been largely unsuccessful because it was capital-intensive where there is limited capital as in the case of Nigeria. It actually provided few new employment opportunities and exacerbated the gap between the rich and poor. Because of the failure of this approach, formal development eorts are now emphasizing the creation of small enterprises in the informal sector that are operated by self-employed individuals. While much of the job growth potential in Nigeria seems to exist through the creation of small enterprises, the ultimate impact of new job creation through the informal sector may be limited for numerous reasons. First, much of the growth of private enterprises in the informal sector in Nigeria has been spontaneous rather than as a result of deliberate strategies within an overall government policy framework. Second, although large numbers of small enterprises may be created, their prospects for growth into medium-size enterprises are limited (House, Ikiara and McCormick, 2010).
Reasons for this lack of growth include an over-supply of similar goods in the market-place, lack of managerial and technical skills, limited capital and low product quality (House et al, 2010). Increasingly, small enterprise development is regarded as crucial to the achievement of broader objectives of government. These include poverty alleviation, economic development and the emergence of more pluralistic societies (International Labour Organization, 2000). The nation’s educational aims and objectives as contained in the National Policy on Education (FGN, 2014) is the acquisition of appropriate skills, abilities, competencies both mental and physical as equipment for the individual to live in and contribute to the development of his society. The focus of entrepreneurship education is aimed at preparing individuals for the enterprise as employees and employers of labour. Popham (2001) posits that an entrepreneurship education is meant to inculcate into the beneficiary what it takes to eiciently and eectively harness and utilize the available human, material and financial resources for the production of goods and services. Entrepreneurship education has been receiving attention nationally. The government places greater emphasis on entrepreneurial development in Nigeria. The National Universities Commission (1989) circulated to all tertiary institutions an approved Minimum Academic Standard for the teaching of courses in business schools at the undergraduate level and it added a compulsory course on Entrepreneurial Development. Several attempts have been made through researches, mounting of entrepreneurship programmes in both institutions of learning and entrepreneurship research centres for the purpose of developing entrepreneurship spirit (Akpomi, 2009). While acknowledging the necessity and importance of education in shaping the culture and destiny of any nation, it should also be understood that a serious departure is needed from hitherto traditional way of doing things especially the manner of training and method of teaching in Nigerian universities and other.
There is need, therefore, to focus on entrepreneurship education at the university level and other tertiary institutions. This should target alternative teaching methods that will harness, inculcate and develop the entrepreneurial career of younger generations and also improve their potentiality towards entrepreneurial skills which will consequently foster economic growth and development leading to employment (Nkang, 2013).
