Abstract
This study sought to determine the influence of tertiary institution students’ entry qualifications to entrepreneurship education on acquisition of the requisite competencies in Kisii County, Kenya. The study was guided by Ajzen’s (1991) theory of planned behaviour and adopted the cross sectional design. Proportionate stratified sampling technique was employed to select a sample of 124, 142 and 146 second year diploma students from Kisii University (KSU), Kisii National Polytechnic (KNP) and Keroka Technical Training Institute (KTI), respectively in the 2019/2020 academic year to participate in the study. The heads of the business and ICT departments (HODs) and the alumni officers were purposely involved as well. Data from students was obtained by use of questionnaires while the HODs and alumni officers were interviewed. Data was analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The study revealed that the entry qualification of students was pegged on performance in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE). It was also established that those students with lower qualifications in KCSE, but had progressively pursued entrepreneurship education tended to acquire competencies more effectively compared to those who had direct entry into the course. The study recommends the teaching of entrepreneurship education in secondary schools as a means of improving not only the entry qualifications of students, but also enhancing acquisition of the relevant competencies. Keywords : Entry qualification, entrepreneurship education, tertiary institution, competencies, course, unit. DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-26-10 Publication date: September 30 th 2020
Highlights
Both the developed and developing countries are facing challenges of unemployment and low economic growth (Ozaralli, & Rivernburgh, 2016; Eijdenberg, Thompson, Verduijn & Esser, 2019)
This study shows that students in the three institutions agreed that their entry qualification influenced their understanding of ideas and opportunities competencies
Like-wise, a change in one aspect of entry qualification associated to resources by one unit while other factors are held constant, the acquisition of competencies will change positively by 0.233 units and a change in one aspect associated with into-action by one unit while the other factors are held constant, the acquisition of competencies will positively increase by 0.127
Summary
Both the developed and developing countries are facing challenges of unemployment and low economic growth (Ozaralli, & Rivernburgh, 2016; Eijdenberg, Thompson, Verduijn & Esser, 2019). It is on this premise that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation has recommended the teaching of entrepreneurship education in the tertiary institutions (UNESCO, 2016; UN, 2018) This is because studies have showed that entrepreneurship education has the potential to equip students with competencies that will enable them to seek employment or set up their own enterprises successfully (Chimucheka, 2014; Pangesa, Fuston & Kumar, 2014; Bacigalupo, Punie & Brande, 2016; Ho, Uy, Kang & Chan, 2018; McCallum, Weicht, McMullan & Price, 2018; Tola & Chimucheka, 2018). According to a study conducted by Kaijun and Sholihah (2015), the introduction of entrepreneurship education in China has had a positive effect on student’s intentions to be entrepreneurs and led to increased economic growth
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