Entrepreneurship Development Education as Succour for Self-Employment: Evidence from Public Universities in The Southwest Nigeria

Abstract

The number of unemployed graduates has been on the increase. In response to this, Entrepreneurship is made a compulsory course in all tertiary institutions at the undergraduate level. The entrepreneurship courses offered is aimed at creating self-employment so as to reduce the dependence on government employment. The study examined Entrepreneurship Development (Education) as succour for Self-employment among the students of public universities in the South west Nigeria that took entrepreneurship as a basic course. The aim of the course is to fill the gap between entrepreneurship education and capability to be self-employed by creating entrepreneurial ventures. Many business and innovative ideas were introduced to the students in the course of study but an evaluation of students’ actions after class and graduation will determine the relevance and impact of the course. The descriptive research design of the survey type is adopted in the study. The population of the study comprises all the students of the universities in the southwest Nigeria. The study is delimited to all the public universities in the southwest Nigeria. This study involves a multi-stage sampling technique to select 360 students in the institutions. Simple random sampling technique is used to select four out of the six states in the southwest, Nigeria. The results showed that entrepreneurship development (education) greatly influenced self-employment among the university students. Therefore, teaching of entrepreneurship with the exploration of both theory and practice; creating commercial awareness and building venture creation skills should be strengthened and sustained in the universities.