Students’ intention towards self-employment: An application of ELT theory on the effectiveness of entrepreneurial education types

Abstract

Self-employment taught via entrepreneurial education is among the vital tools that could curb the high unemployment rate and social vices raving countries such as Nigeria. Drawing upon the experiential learning theory (ELT), this study examines the relationship between entrepreneurial education and its types (and formal, informal and non-formal education) on students’ intention towards self-employment. We successfully analyzed 532 questionnaires from respondents randomly selected from six federal universities in the southwestern Nigerian region. Employing first- and second-order structural equation modeling to analyze the collected data, we affirm the significant effect of entrepreneurial education on students' intention toward self-employment. However, only the formal education type of the three education types was found to affect students’ intentions. The results aligned with the view of ELT that the absence of one or more education types in the entrepreneurial education offered to students might be the crucial reason why fewer than expected students develop the intention towards self-employment after entrepreneurial education exposure.