ABSTRACT
This study is aim to
investigate on relevance of Entrepreneurship education in reducing unemployment
among Undergraduates in Edo State. Three research questions were used to
formulate the hypothesis tested for the study. The study will adopt the
descriptive survey design and random sampling technique will be adopted to
select five departments in the school. From the study this finding were made
which include; it should be infused into the entrepreneurship training
programmes in the tertiary institutions and the Federal Government through the
SURE-P and corporate bodies in Nigeria partnership by supporting the project
through adequate funding of entrepreneurship education. Conclusively, since its
benefits are enormous, adequate steps should be taken to requite
entrepreneurial education by providing at the various levels of
governance-federal state and local government areas. Some recommendations were
made which include; the educational sector needs to be revamped with emphasis
on science and technology. There is need to change the mind set of young people
to embrace self employment rather than waiting for non-existing government job
and there is the need to ensure that those with innovative ideas are provided
with the financial support to translate such ideas into reality.
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background
of the Study
Entrepreneurship education as a functional
education which can be used as a panacea for unemployment, and poverty
eradication for national security, because education has remained the major
instrument for national development for many countries of the world. That is
the reason most nations of the world spend huge sums of money to provide
education for their citizens. Thus education becomes a veritable platform for
tackling socio-cultural, economic, political, scientific and technological
challenges facing many nations.
According to Agi and Yellowe (2013)
education is important to the development of human resources, impartation of
appropriate skills, knowledge and attitude. It is the basis for transformation,
industrialization and a high way to global knowledge economy. Relating to security,
Agi and Yellowe (2013) explained further that education is regarded as a means
of achieving culture of peace, gender equality and positive African values. It
is therefore the understanding of many that education leads to national
transformation and development, through reduction in poverty with ensured peace
and security.
The
National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (2004) document lends
credence to the place of education by clearly explaining its role in
self-reliance and development, Agi and Yellowe (2013) also supports this when
they asserted that the goals of wealth creation or generation, poverty
reduction and value re-orientation can only be attained and sustained through
an efficient education system which impacts the relevant skills, knowledge,
capacities, attitudes and values.
In view of the benefits of education
enumerated above, Nigeria has provided education for decades with abundant
available manpower. However, what keeps agitating the nation endlessly borders
on the slow and inefficient economy, near primitive democracy and violent
social co-existence in society (NEEDS, 2004). Evidenced with many primary and
secondary schools and tertiary institution’s graduates not gainfully employed
either by self or government. Supporting this Ochonma (2011) reported that
about 2.8 million fresh graduates enter the labour market yearly and only 10%
of these are gainfully employed. Unemployment or joblessness, as defined by the
International Labour Organization (1982) occurs when people are without jobs
and they have actively sought work within the past five weeks. The unemployment
rate is a measure of the prevalence of unemployment and it is calculated as a
percentage by dividing the number of unemployed individuals by all individuals
currently in the labour force. The Newsweek (2011) reported that more than 200
million people globally are out of work, a record high, as almost two-thirds of
advanced economies and half of developing countries are experiencing a slowdown
in employment growth.
Dependence on jobs to make money to
buy food and shelter was the beginning of unemployment. Because it has not
always been acknowledged or measured systematically, there are limited
historical records on unemployment. Recognition of unemployment occurred slowly
as economies across the world industrialized and bureaucratized. The
recognition of the concept of “unemployment” is best exemplified through the
well documented historical records in England. For example, in 16th century
England no distinction was made between vagrants and the jobless as they were
simply categorised as “sturdy beggars”, to be punished and moved on (Business
Week, 2011). An individual who cannot either join an enterprise or create a job
is unemployed. As individual farmers, merchants, and artisans organize
themselves into large enterprises, those who cannot join or compete favourably
become unemployed. As population was rising, those unable to find work had a
choice: starve or break the law.
Youth
unemployment across the world has reached a new high and is likely to climb
further. The youth population in sub-Sahara Africa was estimated at 138 million
people in 2002-2003, with 28.9 million or 21% of them unemployed (ILO, 2004b).
There are notable differences in youth unemployment with regard to gender. The
unemployment rate for young women in sub-Sahara Africa is 18.4%, lower than the
rate for young men (23.1%) even though young women’s participation rate is
lower. Youth unemployment in Africa also
has a geographical dimension. It is generally higher in the urban areas than in
rural areas. Several factors account for higher youth unemployment rate in
Africa, most notably low economic growth, low economic activity and low
investment. These related factors contribute to low job creation and because of
sustained (increase in some cases) population growth the small labour market is
unable to absorb the resulting army of job seekers.
Youth unemployment has been increasing
because most graduates lack relevant marketable skills. The Federal government
recently acknowledged that about 80 percent of Nigeria’s youth are unemployed
while 10 percent are underemployed (Daily Trust, 2008). According to the
National Bureau of statistics (2010) the national unemployment rates for
Nigeria between 2000 and 2009 showed that unemployed persons constituted 31.1%,
13.6% in 2001, 12.6% in 2002, 13.4% in 2004, 13.7% in 2006, 14.9% in 2008, and
19.7% in 2009. With respect to age group, education and sex NBS (2010) data
showed that persons aged between 15 and 24 years had 41.6% unemployed. For
persons between 25 and 44 years, 17% were unemployed. For persons with primary
education 14.8% were unemployed while those with post secondary education had
21.3% unemployed. As regards sex, data showed that males constituted 17.% of
the unemployed while females constituted 23.3%.
Entrepreneurship is not just skill
acquisition for acquisition sake; it is an acquisition of skills and ideas for
the sake of creating employment for oneself and also for others. It also
includes the development based on creativity (Oseni, Momoh and Momodu, 2012).
Entrepreneurship leads to the development of small, medium and sometimes large
scale businesses based on creativity and innovation. The success of these businesses
in turn helps in developing the nation’s economy. It equally reduces poverty
rate with visible increment in employment rate among the youth.
Entrepreneurship shifts young people from being “job seekers” to “job creators”
and also from social dependence to self sufficient people. However, training is
very essential in entrepreneurship.
In a similar vein, Chiguta (2001)
notes that entrepreneurship has been receiving increasing recognition as a
source of job creation, empowerment for the unemployed and economic dynamism in
a rapidly globalizing world. Unemployment rate was discovered to be negatively
related to entrepreneurial development (Oladele, Akeke and Oladunjoye, 2011).
High rate of unemployment has been associated with low level of entrepreneurial
development in any country. This justifies the need to increase entrepreneurial
activities to reduce the high rate of youth unemployment.
Statement
of the Problem
Analyzing the problem of education in
Nigeria, Agi and Yellowe (2013) argued that the problem is not about curriculum
or investment in education neither is it non-availability of manpower for the
sector, but that many have tended to look in the direction of management of
education which include lack of policy analysis to make students to fit into
society, yet not relying on the government of the day but the managerial
ingenuity of educational managers and administrators to make education a
building block of socio-economic empowerment, prosperity, self-reliance,
employment crime reduction and national security, through improved access to
quality, functional eduction at all levels.
Quoting Mills, Nwadiani (2011) noted
that education embraces not only the deliberate processes of schooling but it
includes even indirect and incidental influences. This concept of education
discusses formal and informal education; seeing education as going beyond the
formal school system and includes non-formal education which makes the whole
process of learning a continuous one terminating at dearth. However, because of
recent happenings – unemployment, underemployment, poverty and their
re-occurring effects, many people have hitherto criticized formal education for
lack of its relevance while some others also strongly looked down on informal
education as being unable to promote the much needed development, scientific
and technological breakthrough.
According to Nwadiani (2011) there are
misconceptions that non-formal education is cheap, designed and meant for the
poor and it is only suitable to developing countries. It must therefore be
noted that these fallacious misconceptions are forces against the acceptance
and popularization of the entrepreneurship in Nigeria’s educational policy
making and implementation.
Purpose of Study
The main purpose of the study is to examine
relevance entrepreneurship education in addressing unemployment challenges in
Nigeria. Specifically, the objectives were to:
ii.
Students’ perceptions on the effects of unemployment
in Nigeria.
iii. Students’
perceptions on the need for entrepreneurship education in solving the problem
of youth unemployment in Nigeria.
Research Questions
The following research questions have
been highlighted to guide the study.
i.
What are students’
perceptions on the causes of unemployment in Nigeria?
ii.
What are Students’
perceptions on the effects of unemployment in Nigeria?
iii. Students’
perceptions on the need for entrepreneurship education in solving the problem
of youth unemployment in Nigeria.
Significance
of the Study
This study
will be of benefit to university lecturers, students, government and the
university management. The study will show to them the causes,
the effects of unemployment and the need for entrepreneurship education in
solving the problem of youth unemployment in Nigeria.
To
university lecturers, the study will unveil to them the areas to concentrate in
the school syllabus in order to develop entrepreneurial minds of students for
creative employment and also help the show the need for introducing entrepreneurship
education into the school curriculum in Nigeria.
To
the parents, the study of their children during child birth and training cannot
be determined towards the course of study in higher institution. Lastly, the
findings from the study will show to the government the role of entrepreneurship
education in solving the problem of youth unemployment in Nigeria.
Scope
of the Study
This
study examines the relevance entrepreneurship education in addressing
unemployment challenges in Nigeria. The study will be undertaken among
undergraduates from the two public universities in Edo state which are: Ambrose
Alli University, Ekpoma and university of Benin.
Definition
of Terms
For the better understanding of this
research work, some of the terms and concepts used need further explanation.
These includes
Unemployment:
Unemployment
occurs when people are without work and actively seeking for work. It is a
situation where someone of working age is not able to get a job but would like
to be in full time employment. Unemployment is a measure of the prevalence of
unemployment and it is calculated as a parentage by dividing the number of
unemployed individual by all individuals currently in the labour force.
Entrepreneurship
Education: Entrepreneurship Education seeks to provide
students with the knowledge, skills and motivation to encourage
entrepreneurship education focuses on realization of opportunity, where
management education is focused on the best way to operate existing
hierarchies. Both approaches share an interest in achieving “profit” in some
form and variations of entrepreneurship education are offered at all levels of
schooling from primary or secondary schools through graduate university
programs.
Perception: Perception is the act or facility of
perceiving or apprehending by means of the senses or of the mind, perception is
the organization identification, and interpretation of sensory information in
order to represent and understand the environment. All perception involves signals
in the nervous system, which in turn result from physical or chemical
stimulation of sense organs. ================================================================
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