ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION AND ACQUISITION OF EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS AMONG BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION STUDENTS OF UNIVERSITY OF UYO

Abstract

Throughout the world, entrepreneurship education remains the bedrock for acquiring employable skills by graduates for employment upon graduation. Unfortunately, many countries face economic challenges and immense pressure on higher education to produce quality graduates who can turn around economies with their specialist knowledge and skills. The study examines how entrepreneurship education enhances employability skills acquisition among undergraduate students in Nigeria, with the view to equipping them with employable skills for uphill tasks upon graduation using the University of Uyo as a case study. Five objectives, research questions and hypotheses formulated to guide the study were tested using the mean score and chi-square statistical methods respectively. Political Economy theoretical approach with a survey-based descriptive research design was adopted for the study. The population was drawn from 200 level students of 2019/2020 sessions in the Faculty of Business Administration at the University of Uyo with a sample size of 475 using a simple random sampling technique to select a sample for the study. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire titled “Students’ Employability Skills Acquisition Scale (SESAS). The validity of the instrument was determined by two experts and the reliability coefficient range was 0.7- 0.78. The null hypotheses were tested using the chi-square statistical method and all were rejected and the alternate hypotheses were retained. The findings revealed that entrepreneurship education influences the acquisition of employability skills of students at the University of Uyo, Nigeria. The study recommended among others that government should provide the needed equipment and facilities to make the teaching of entrepreneurship education practically oriented in all universities across the country.