ASSESSMENT OF COMPETENCIES POSSESSED BY UNIVERSITY POSTGRADUATE BUSINESS EDUCATION STUDENTS TO HANDLE ENTREPRENEURSHIP BUSINESS CHALLENGES IN NIGERIA

AUTHOR: OKORO, JAMES

DEPARTMENT: VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION

AFFILIATION: NNAMDI AZIKIWE UNIVERSITY, AWKA

University business education graduates, by the nature of their programme, ought to possess relevant competencies for successful entrepreneurship but casual observation and empirical reports indicate that they are not doing well in their entrepreneurial knowledge. Therefore, this study assessed the competencies possessed by the university postgraduate business education students to handle entrepreneurship business challenges in Nigeria. Five research questions were used to guide the study, while five hypotheses were tested. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The population, also used as the sample, consisted of 388 business education graduates who are currently running their postgraduate programme in universities in the south-south and south-east geopolitical zones. A validated questionnaire with a reliability coefficient of 0.80 was used for data collection. The arithmetic mean and standard deviation were used to analyze data relative to the research questions while the z-test statistic was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The results revealed that the respondents have relevant competencies in information and communication technology, management and accounting, among others. It was further discovered that gender and location of respondents’ universities do not significantly affect respondents mean ratings on possessed ICT, office practice and management competencies. Based on the findings of this study, it is concluded that, relatively, university business education graduates used for the study have the required competencies for entrepreneurship success and should be encouraged to start some kind of businesses. However, it is recommended, among other things, that university authorities should ensure adequate provision of ICT equipment and facilities for business education and that the programme should adequately incorporate different aspects of insurance while the students and graduates are encouraged to attend seminars in insurance for practical knowledge.

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ASSESSMENT OF STRATEGIES FOR EFFECTIVE TEACHING OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP BY BUSINESS EDUCATION TEACHERS IN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN SOUTH-SOUTH NIGERIA

AUTHOR: JIMOH-KADIRI SIDIKAT OSAMUEDE

DEPARTMENT: VOCATIONAL EDUCATION

AFFILIATION: NNAMDI AZIKIWE UNIVERSITY, AWKA

This study sought to ascertain the effective strategies for teaching entrepreneurship skills in tertiary institutions in the south-south zone of Nigeria as considered by business education teachers. Four research questions were formulated and four hypotheses were posed and tested at 0.05 level of significance. Descriptive survey design was employed. The population consisted of 210 business education teachers in tertiary institutions in the south-south zone of Nigeria as at October, 2009. There was no sampling, since the 210 business education teachers were manageable in number; the population remained as the sample. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire with 43 items. The instrument was validated by five experts and its reliability coefficient was 0.82. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation in answering the research questions and inferential statistics of z-test for testing the null hypotheses. Data analysis revealed that teacher-oriented, student-oriented and assignment-oriented strategies were considered effective for teaching entrepreneurship courses. On the other hand, games and simulation strategies were considered not effective for teaching entrepreneurship courses. The data also revealed that gender, experience, type of institutions and availability of instructional facilities had no significant influence on business education teachers’ consideration of the effectiveness of teaching strategies. Based on the results of the findings, the following, among other recommendations were made: (1) very few business education teachers have clear understanding of how games and simulation strategies operate, they should be encouraged to go for further training on how to use these strategies, (2) employment and deployment of teachers in schools at all levels should not be gender-biased and (3) entrepreneurship education should be made compulsory to all students from primary to tertiary institutions in order, to prepare them for self and venture creation, employment after graduation.

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ASSESSMENT OF ENTREPRENEURIAL SKILLS POSSESSED BY SMALL SCALE BUSINESS OPERATORS IN DELTA STATE

AUTHOR: ONNOH-ONAJITE, GODWIN

DEPARTMENT: VOCATIONAL EDUCATION,

AFFILIATION: NNAMDI AZIKIWE UNIVERSITY, AWKA.

This study assessed the opinions of small scale business operators in Delta state on the entrepreneurial skills they possessed. The problem of the study is that small scale businesses in Delta State are either not doing well or have failed. The design of the research is based on survey method and the area of study is Delta State. The population consists of all the 984 small scale business operators in Delta state who were registered by the Ministry of Commerce and Industries as at December 2010. A sample of 625 registered small scale business operators from the 25 LGAs in the state were used for the study. Four research questions guided the conduct of the study and four hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Questionnaire was the instrument used for data collection. The validity of the instrument was established by experts in business education while the cronbach alfa reliability method was used and a reliability coefficient of 0.94 was obtained. Data collected were analyzed using mean ratings, z-test and one way analysis of variance (ANOVA). From the results of the analysis of the data, it was discovered that ethics and moral skills, self motivation skills, time management skills and inter
personal relation skills were rated as high extent. Small scale business operators did not differ significantly in their mean ratings of the extent they possessed ethics and moral skills, self motivation skills, time management skills and interpersonal relation skills as a result of their sex, location and educational qualifications. However, they differed significantly in their mean rating of the extent they possessed interpersonal relation skills as a result of their years of operation. Based on the results, it was recommended that curriculum planners should incorporate the identified entrepreneurship skills in the curriculum of entrepreneurship programmes both at the secondary and tertiary levels of Business Education so that prospective entrepreneurs could effectively manage their enterprises. It was also recommended that irrespective of the course of study at any tertiary institution, entrepreneurship training should be integrated so that the level of business failure could be minimized. Furthermore, it was recommended that workshops and seminars should be organized for operators of small scale business owners by the agencies responsible for the development of small scale businesses at all levels of
government to create in-depth knowledge and technical know-how on the identified entrepreneurship skills.

TO VIEW THE FULL CONTENT OF THIS DOCUMENT, PLEASE VISIT THE UNIZIK LIBRARY WEBSITE USING THIS LINK, http://www.naulibrary.org/dglibrary/admin/book_directory/Thesis/10933.pdf