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THE INFLUENCE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION ON STUDENT’S
OPPURTUNITY IDENTIFICATION IN COLLEGES OF EDUCATION
KATSINA STATE
(A CASE STUDY OF FEDERAL COLLEGE OF EDUCATION KATSINA)
BY
SHUAIBU UMAR
DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS EDUCATION, FEDERAL COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
KATSINA
abuhuzaifa679@gmail.com
08061566611
AND
MUHAMMAD BUHARI
DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS EDUCATION, FEDERAL COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
KATSINA
buharimuhammad1151@gmail.com
08129081268
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ABSRACT
It was believed that Entrepreneurship Education was introduced into Tertiary
institution in order to address issue of unemployment and poverty among youth that
various programmes failed to address. This study investigates the influence of
Entrepreneurship Education on student’s ability to identify a viable business venture.
The population of the study consist of 200 level students of General Studies Education
224 of 2015/2016 Academic session totalling about 2000, which a sample of 200
students were randomly selected. The instrument was a structured questionnaire,
subjected to face and content validation by experts in Measurement and Evaluation unit
and the test for reliability yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.78. Analysis of variance
was used to analyze the data at 0.05 alpha levels The findings showed a significant
relationship in the two hypotheses. This implies that Entrepreneurship Education had a
significant relationship with Opportunity Identification and importantly, the students
that offered Entrepreneurship Education will identify a Venture able business
opportunity while undergoing the course.. The study recommends Educational
administrators of Colleges of Education should liaise with National Commission for
Colleges of Education (NCCE) in Credits Unit allocated to Entrepreneurship Education
Course to actualize the objective of its introduction into Tertiary Institution and Course
content need to be revisited and broken down into feasible content and spread all over
the Levels to remove naive assumption in it
KEY WORD: Entrepreneurship Education, opportunity identification, Colleges of
Education
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1. INTRODUCTION
The problems of unemployment, poverty and large number of paper qualification
graduates from tertiary institutions have recently become issues of national concern.
However, successive Government introduces various socio-economic policies in order
to address these problems which little was achieved compared to the multiplicity of
numbers of the programmes introduced. Think of Nigeria Opportunities
Industrialization Centre (NOIC)(1970), Indigenization Decree (1971), Nigeria
Enterprises Promotion Decree (1972) , Export Promotion Decree (1977), National
Directorate of Employment (NDE) (1987), Industrial Policy of Nigeria (1988),
National Office for Technological Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP) (1992), Small
and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN)(2003), Federal
Institute of Industrial Research (FIIRO), Engineering and Material Development
Institute (EMDI) and many more. These entire programmes were established to curtail
the menace of unemployment and poverty in Nigeria which due to political instability
and inconsistencies in the socioeconomic policies of successive governments little was
achieved upon all the efforts.
In the face of this situation Entrepreneurship Education was proposed to salvage the
situation. The Federal Government in 2006 set up entrepreneurship studies and made
it compulsory for students of higher education institutions irrespective of area of
specialization and in all Colleges of Education entrepreneurship Education have been
adopted as a compulsory general studies course for students of 200 Levels. The overall
objective is to continuously foster entrepreneurship culture amongst students and
faculty with a view of not only educating them but to also support graduates of the
system towards establishing and also maintaining sustainable business ventures,
including but not limited to those arising from research. (The Nigeria Voice, 2011) The
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students should be able to harness and identify a business opportunity as a result of
undergoing Entrepreneurship Education Course so that after graduation they should be
able to become self-reliance..
The Federal Government move through the Federal Ministry of Education to make
Entrepreneurship Education Course as one of the compulsory General Studies for
students in Colleges of Education across the country should be seen as a welcome
development as it was assumed it can inculcate in the youths the spirit of
Entrepreneurship. This development will not only address the problem of
unemployment and underemployment but will also ensure an entrepreneurial human
capacity for national development. It is hope that with the introduction of
entrepreneurial Education Course in our tertiary institutions will be better to change the
ugly situations of unemployment in Nigeria. But the question is; will a Semester Course
expose students in Colleges of Education acquire the required Entrepreneurial skills to
the extent that their mental alertness, prior knowledge moulded to enable them identify
a Business opportunity or opportunity Spotting? The above mention problems and
many more prompt this research.
It is pertinent to note that education can be a means to an end not end itself; it can
simply be a tool for securing employment and emancipation of people through the
provision and acquiring of necessary skills to make lives more flourishing. Ardichvili et
al. (2003) emphasized many times that entrepreneurs must first possess relevant prior
knowledge and entrepreneurial awareness. Then, these two can be transformed into
opportunity identification.
2. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The general objective of the study is to examine the influence of
entrepreneurship education on opportunity identification among Colleges of Education
students in Katsina State. The specific objectives therefore include to:
1, Determine how Entrepreneurship Education improve student capabilities in
opportunity identification.
2. How mediating effect play significant role in students opportunity
identification.
3. Find out the roles of entrepreneurship education in opportunity identification.
4. Find the effect of teaching Entrepreneurship Education in Colleges of
Education on Opportunity Identification
