Entrepreneurial Abilities of Technical Graduates and their Self-Employability in Tanzania

Abstract

Entrepreneurship education is imperative for economic development and new economic strategies for fostering and generating jobs creating entrepreneurs. This paper therefore assesses the influence of entrepreneurial abilities on selfemployment among technical graduates in Tanzania. It specifically identifies the entrepreneurial skills acquired by technical graduates from technical institutions and examined the influence of identified entrepreneurial skills on self-employment among the technical graduates in Tanzania. This study was approached quantitatively based on explanatory survey design. Data were collected using questionnaire from 350 technical graduates sampled using stratified simple random technique. The collected data were analysed using Multiple Linear Regressions. The findings show that to a great extent graduates from colleges and universities acquire technical entrepreneurial skills; business management and to a small extent personal entrepreneurial skills. The findings show further that business management was ranked highly as the leading entrepreneurial skill for self-employment among technical graduates. All three entrepreneurial skills were found to have positive and significant influence on self-employment among technical graduates in Tanzania. The study recommends that colleges, institutes and universities should emphatically inculcate all the entrepreneurial skills to students as they have significant contributions to graduates self-employment.