Skills Required Of Business Education Students In Federal College Of Education (T) Asaba For Sustainable Entrepreneurship

ABSTRACT

This study was carried out to assess skills required of business education students in Federal College of Education (T) Asaba for sustainable entrepreneurship. The population of the study comprised of 59 lecturers in School of Business Education, Federal College of Education (Technical) Asaba, Delta State. Due to the manageable size of respondents, all the fifty-nine (59) lecturers were studied, hence no sampling. The instrument for data collection was a structured research questionnaire, which was structured by the researcher and validated by three lecturers. To ensure the consistency of the validated instrument, a pilot study was carried out on 5 lecturers in College of Education Agbor, Delta State. Fifty-nine (59) copies of the validated questionnaire items were administered on the 59 lecturers in School of Business Education by the researcher with the help of 2 research assistants and 55 instruments were retrieved and analyzed using mean statistics. Based on the analysis, it was found that the skills required by Business Education students for sustainable entrepreneurship are accounting, managerial, human relation and computers skills. Based on the findings, the study recommended among others that students should be encouraged to develop accounting skills for a sustainable entrepreneurship and students should be encouraged to acquaint themselves with managerial skills for sustainable entrepreneurship.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

The success of every business is traceable to the skills possess by the employees and the employer. Skills go a long way in determining whether or not the business will stand the test or the of time. They give an entrepreneur the upper hand to compete favourably in the business environment.

According to Atakpa (2016), entrepreneurship education is designed to inspire potential entrepreneurs into the field by inculcating the right type of values, appropriate skills, abilities and competences in the individual to contribute maximally to the growth of the Nigerian economy. The National Board for Technical Education (NBTE, 2014), in introducing entrepreneurship courses into the vocational/technical curriculum of tertiary education, maintained that the courses are intended to create awareness in graduates and motivate them towards self-employment through the development of personal skills, business competences, and effectiveness in communication. This is achieved with the use of project-based learning methods in learning environments simulating the economic setting to set up and manage business enterprises.  Lack of continuity and expansion in business has been the problem of so many businesses. Lack of entrepreneurial skills cannot be divulged from the sudden collapse and fall of many enterprises in Nigeria. For proper development of such skills, entrepreneurship education has been introduced. The graduates of Business Education, through entrepreneurship education, are to be equipped with the skill of identifying latent opportunities and taking advantage of them to create wealth for themselves.

Entrepreneurship skills are business skills acquired in the course of education that enables individuals to function effectively in changing business environment as entrepreneurs.  Richard (2015) noted that entrepreneurial education programmes offer students the tools with which to think creatively and to be effective problem solvers. Education for entrepreneurship can be particularly effective in initial vocational training. For students who are to enter working life and self-employment, it may be a valuable option.  One of the methods adopted by government, through education, to tackle unemployment has been the introduction of entrepreneurship development as a course in the educational system. Okechukwu (2017) observed that the introduction of this programme at all strata of education in the country, with the aim of improving employment generation abilities of individuals, will help to eradicate unemployment among graduates.

Entrepreneurship is the act of being an entrepreneur. The word „entrepreneur‟ in French means „one who undertakes or an undertaker‟. It is commonly used in the context of someone who undertakes to transform innovation into economic goods.  Entrepreneurship is therefore defined as a practical creativeness, which combines willingness, resources and ability to do things that are already being done in new ways (Justin, 2016).  Entrepreneurship seeks to make people, particularly youths, to be responsible, enterprising individuals who become entrepreneurs or entrepreneurial thinkers by immersing them in real-life learning experiences on how to take risks, manage specific results and learn from the outcomes.

Adejimola and Olufunmulayo (2016) noted that entrepreneurship education is a course that enables the individual to develop understanding and skills which enable him/her to enter the business world and earn a livelihood.

Entrepreneurship education is the education planned for the development and acquisition of requisite skills and ideas that will help to create gainful employment for the trainees and other unemployed youths. Entrepreneurship education, according to Wikipedia (2014), sought to provide students with the knowledge, skills and motivation to encourage entrepreneurial success in a variety of settings. Doyle (2017) saw entrepreneurship as an economic process of creating incremental wealth by individuals who assume the major risks in terms of equity, time or career commitment or providing value for the same product or service. Entrepreneurship is often approached as the catalyst and caretaker of national/regional economic development (Ibru, 2017). It is seen as the privileged road to enhance the creation of new jobs and increase Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (Parker, 2014).

Olatoke (2018) admitted that the acquisition of creativity skills empowers an individual to be functional in any economy. Creativity skills equip an individual with the option of being self-employed. Business education equips learners with knowledge, human and social skills which are relevant for bringing about economic improvement. The purpose of business education according to Aliyu (2017) is to provide training for specific jobs and develop ability to use these skills in the environment of business. Vocational training, if properly delivered to the recipients, would equip the trainees with saleable skills that

would assist in earning a living. It also stimulates and encourages creativity and the development of the right attitude and habits.

Being resourceful as defined by Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2015) is being good at finding ways of doing things and solving problems.  According to Olagunju (2014), there are qualities that characterize resourcefulness which a business education graduate requires for employment generation.

Management involves the process of planning, organizing, coordinating and controlling of available resources to achieve a set goal. To plan, individuals must be willing and able to seek out investment opportunities in an environment and be able to establish and run an enterprise successfully based on the identified opportunities (Igbo, 2014). The essence of entrepreneurship education is to ensure self-sustainability, employment generation, income generation, wealth creation and reduction in crime rate.

Olise (2016) stated that to attain these goals, business entrepreneurs should apply the management technique known as Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threats (SWOT) analysis. In using SWOT, an enterprise could measure its strength and weaknesses and identify opportunities available for exploitation and the probable threats to its successful operation. The first two (strength and weakness) are dependent on the internal factors within the organization such as management style, and production strategies adopted.

Managerial skills are also required by business education students. Management skill entails having knowledge of seasonal fluctuation of goods and prices. Government policies and their immediate outcome may be difficult to interpret by business organizations. The outcome may be favourable or unfavourable and the result may be an opportunity or threat to a business. In view of this, knowledge of business management is essential. Olise (2016) observed that an entrepreneur must calculate the risks involved in the project being undertaken, assess situations and focus special attention on the risks involved. The entrepreneur takes reasonable risk which provides reasonable and challenging chances of success. Based on this, an entrepreneur must possess personal talent, skills, ability, technical know-how, experience, attributes and values that can take care of risks (Vesper, 2016). Managerial skills required by an entrepreneur involve the ability to communicate effectively, ability to make long and short-term planning, ability to conduct personal evaluation and knowledge of good human relationship among others. Management skill is very important before one could think of venturing into a business undertaking.          Agbamu (2016) in Akpan (2017) suggested that learners must acquire the ability to identify or recognize a profitable market opportunity, must be able to marshal and commit resources to pursue that opportunity while facing the prospect of risks and must be able to create and operate a business organization that implements the business idea. Akpan (2017) observed that unless individuals are taught how to recognize and develop opportunities, the initiators will not be able to initiate new businesses because they will not recognize them.

With resourcefulness, the entrepreneur discovers opportunity easily, garners the resources to exploit the opportunity, obtain better management style, expand the business faster and accumulate wealth easily.

Statement of the Problem

Skills play vital role in the sustainability of entrepreneurship. It is the skills that help a business to grow and succeed. With the required skills, an entrepreneur will be able to manage his or her business no matter the economic situation of the country. This shows that without the skills necessary to sustain business, failure is inevitable.

In Business education, students are taught several skills that will enable them to start and run their own business without depending on anyone to do so. This shows that it is expected that on graduation, business education graduates should be able to effectively sustain their businesses.

However, the revers has always been the case because many students do graduate from school without the proper knowledge of entrepreneurship while some who are able to start their own businesses are found not to have the capability to sustain such ventures. This has generated a lot of public outcry due to the inability of young entrepreneurs to manage and sustain their businesses. It Could be as a result of not having the knowledge of the skills required to sustain the businesses. Could it be that they have no idea on the particular skills that will help them to do so?  These and more are questions begging for answers.

It is against the light of the above that this study is carried out to ascertain the skills required of business education in Federal College of Education (T) Asaba.

for sustainable entrepreneurship

 Purpose of the Study

The main purpose of this study is to assess the skills required of business education students in Federal College of Education (T) Asaba for sustainable entrepreneurship. Specifically, the study sought to ascertain:

1. the accounting skills required of business education students in Federal College of Education (T) Asaba for sustainable entrepreneurship.
2. the managerial skills required of business education students in Federal College of Education (T) Asaba for sustainable entrepreneurship.

• the human relation skills required of business education students in Federal College of Education (T) Asaba for sustainable entrepreneurship.

1. the computer skills required of business education students in Federal College of Education (T) Asaba for sustainable entrepreneurship.

Research Questions

To effectively carry out the study, the following research questions were raised:

1. What are the accounting skills required of business education students for sustainable entrepreneurship in Federal College of Education (T) Asaba?
2. What are the managerial skills required of business education students in Federal College of Education (T) Asaba for sustainable entrepreneurship?

• What are the human relation skills required of business education students in Federal College of Education (T) Asaba for sustainable entrepreneurship?

1. What are the computer skills required of business education in Federal College of Education (T) Asaba students for sustainable entrepreneurship?

 Significance of the Study

The findings of this study could be of great benefit to students, lecturers, government, and the field of business education.

The study could enable the students to understand the skills required of them for sustainable entrepreneurship which could motivate them to learn those skills for maximum impact, for employment and development.

It could also be of great help to teachers because it could help them to identify the necessary skills that business education students need to be taught if they must sustain entrepreneurship. This will give room for improvement on students.

Parents could also benefit from the findings of this study in that it could help to bring to their notice the kind of skills that their children need for sustainable entrepreneurship which would help them to ensure that their children acquire those skills and become useful to them and society.

The study could also be beneficial to the government because it could help the government by identifying the necessary skills for sustainable entrepreneurship. That would motivate the government through ministry of education to introduce programmes that will enable the students to learn the required skills before graduation in bringing innovation in curriculum development.

Finally, the study could also an addition to the literature in the field of business education which would serve as a reference material for those who may wish to carry out a related study in this field.

Scope of the Study

The study is delimited to the assessment of skills required of business education students in Federal College of Education (T) Asaba for sustainable entrepreneurship. With particular emphasis on accounting skills, managerial skills, human relation skills and computer skills.

Pages:  55

Category: Project

Format:  Word & PDF               

Chapters: 1-5                                          

Source: Imsuinfo

Material contains Table of Content, Abstract and References.