AN EVALUATION OF THE ENTREPRENEURIAL INCLINATION AMONG CLOTHING AND TEXTILE UNDERGRADUATE IN SOUTH WESTERN NIGERIA

Abstract

Entrepreneurship has been described as an incubator and energiser of market innovation, product and technological growth as well as a means of revitalising the economy and reducing unemployment. This study focused on assessing the entrepreneurship inclination among Clothing and Textile undergraduates and their attitude towards government entrepreneurial programmes. The study was carried out in selected tertiary institutions (Colleges of Education, Polytechnics and Universities) in South-Western Nigeria. A Multistage sampling was used with a combination of stratified and proportionate sampling to select four hundred and fifty (450) final year students from the selected tertiary institutions in South-Western Nigeria. Data were collected with the aid of questionnaire and were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistical tools. Results showed that most of the respondents were female (55.3%) while (44.7%) were male with a mean age of 22 years. More than half (54%) of the respondents were from Colleges of Education, 23.7% were from Universities and 22.2% were from Polytechnics. The findings further revealed that 30.4%, 24%, 19.6% and 14.2% were studying Home Economics, Creative arts, Fine arts and Clothing and Textiles respectively. The percentage of response on the students’ attitude towards entrepreneurship was 87.3%. The results of the chi-square showed that only the educational status of the respondents (χ2=14.65, p<0.05) indicated a significant relationship between the educational status of the students and their entrepreneurial inclination. The regression analysis showed that there was a significant correlation between government empowerment programme and the entrepreneurial inclination of the respondents (r = 0.43, P = 0.00). The β value of 0.43 explained the percentage of government empowerment programme to entrepreneurial inclination of the respondents. Also, there was no significant difference between entrepreneurial skills inclination of undergraduate students across the selected tertiary institutions at P < 0.05 level of significance. The study concluded that respondents in the study area have positive attitude towards government entrepreneurship programme. Consequently, the respondents are entrepreneurial inclined and government entrepreneurship programme is effective to reduce unemployment in the country and in promoting job creation.