Abstract
Entrepreneurial capacity building is one of the important strategies to boost economic growth in general and solve unemployment problems in particular. Governments across the world have taken wider initiatives to encourage entrepreneurship among younger generations. Oman has never been an exception to this phenomenon. It has introduced several initiative and programs to promote entrepreneurship in the Country. One of the important initiatives to promote entrepreneurship came in the year 2015 when the Oman Ministry of Higher Education made it mandatory for all the higher education institution (HEIs) in the Country to introduce a course on Entrepreneurship across all their academic programs. Since the academic year 2015-2016, all the HEIs in the country have been training all their students in entrepreneurship as a national requirement. In this background, the purpose of this paper is to report the effects of entrepreneurship education, which is a national initiative, on the students’ entrepreneurial intention at the Country’s second biggest university, the University of Nizwa. One full cohort of students (N=349) who registered for the University required Entrepreneurship course (MNGT100) at the University of Nizwa, for Fall 2019-2020 Semester was surveyed. The findings show that the entrepreneurial education can positively influence the entrepreneurial intentions of the students. The findings have academic as well as policy implications as strengthening and enhancing entrepreneurship education will further enhance the students’ entrepreneurial intentions.
Highlights
Oman has been a country where innovation driven small family business existed throughout its history
A total of 259 complete and valid responses were received and were analyzed. 92.3 percent comprised of females and 5 percent comprised of males, where as 2.7 percent did not mention their gender
The University where the study was conducted is comprised of four colleges namely College of Arts and Science (CAS), College of Economics, Management and Information Systems (CEMIS), College of Engineering and Architecture (CEA), and College of Nursing and Pharmacy (CPN)
Summary
Oman has been a country where innovation driven small family business existed throughout its history. The same study (AlMaimani and Johari, 2015) found that major obstacles faced by small business owners in Oman are, the lack of essential knowledge of trade and the lack of important business skills which no doubt signifies the importance of entrepreneurship education. El-Gohary, O'Leary and Radway (2012), in their study argued that both developed and developing economies need to have more entrepreneurs who are willing to assist the economic growth. This is supported by Olorundare & Kayode, (2014) who argue that entrepreneurship activities have positive impact on national GDP and reducing unemployment rates
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
