Effect of Entrepreneurship Education on Student’s Entrepreneurial Psychosocial Adjustment
Chapter One
Objective of the study
The objectives of the study are:
- To determine the level of awareness of the benefits of entrepreneurship in senior secondary schools in Anambra state.
- To determine the extent introduction of entrepreneurship education in senior secondary school curriculum heightens entrepreneurial psychosocial adjustments of secondary school students in Anambra state on the basis of their self-esteem.
- To ascertain whether Entrepreneurship education influences entrepreneurial psychosocial adjustments of students on the basis of social status.
- To the degree to which entrepreneurship education influences entrepreneurial psychosocial adjustments of students on the basis of self-efficacy.
- To ascertain the extent to which entrepreneurial education influences entrepreneurial psychosocial adjustments of students on the basis of their self-perception.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
INTRODUCTION
Entrepreneurship has become much more important in the contemporary world where financial crises have been occurring. Entrepreneurship and innovation are regarded as an important tool to resolve the global challenges of the 21st century, to structure the sustainable development, to create new employment areas, to bring about renewed economic growth, and to enhance welfare (WEF, 2009: 7). The most commonly debated question in the research on entrepreneurship is probably why some individuals are entrepreneurs while the others are not. Numerous studies on business creation suggest that individual differences are the basic reason underlying the question why some individuals actively go for establishing their own businesses while the others do not. Behaviorists consider entrepreneurs independently from individual characteristics as individuals with entrepreneurial behavior. According to the behavioral approach, behavior can be learnt through formal and informal processes (Paço et. al., 2015: 58). Drucker considers entrepreneurship as a discipline (Drucker, 1993: vii). From this perspective, entrepreneurship appears as a learnable fact. Therefore, entrepreneurship plays a critical role in improving prospective entrepreneurs and steering them towards development and entrepreneurship by providing them with a combination of knowledge, skills and capability to establish and maintain new enterprises (Dutta, Li and Merenda, 2011: 165). Education is vital to create an understanding of entrepreneurship, to develop entrepreneurial capabilities, and to contribute to entrepreneurial identities and cultures at individual, collective and social levels (Rae, 2010: 603). Therefore, an individual, who receives a basic entrepreneurship education providing competence in administrative terms, is more likely to engage in an entrepreneurship activity in the future (Dutta, Li and Merenda, 2011: 174). Entrepreneurship education has not achieved sufficient maturity either in theory or in practice. Early courses on entrepreneurship have started in the United States in 1940s. Since those times, entrepreneurship education has increased considerably in the developed world (Paço et. al., 2015: 59). The number of universities and colleges with entrepreneurship courses in their curricula has clearly increased in the United States since the late 1960s. The entrepreneurship-related courses of many schools such as “Entrepreneurship & Venture Creation,” “Small Business Management,” “Enterprise Development” occupy a significant place in their curricula. Increasingly large number of colleges and graduate schools have accepted entrepreneurship as a fundamental area (Lee, Chang and Lim, 2005: 30). This trend became especially common in the universities in the United States, Canada and France in 1990s (Paço et. al., 2015: 59). The financial and economic crisis that emerged in 2008 and the subsequent global recession have led to the emergence of a new economic era with important effects on entrepreneurship education, too (Rae, 2010: 591). A study was carried out on the graduates who completed the University of Arizona’s Berger Entrepreneurship Program between 1985 and 1999. This study determined that entrepreneurship had an effect on generating enterprises and creating welfare. Furthermore, it was concluded that entrepreneurship education had positive impacts on individuals’ risk taking, enterprise education, inclination to be self-employed, and income/welfare generation. Those who received entrepreneurship education earned 10% higher monthly income in comparison with those who did not. In addition, and more interestingly, it was found that the graduates who had received this education gained 62% more personal assets than those who had not received (Charney and Libecap, 2000: 1-7).
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
The researcher used descriptive research survey design in building up this project work the choice of this research design was considered appropriate because of its advantages of identifying attributes of a large population from a group of individuals. The design was suitable for the study as the study sought to effect of entrepreneurship education on students entrepreneurial psychosocial adjustment
Sources of data collection
Data were collected from two main sources namely:
(i)Primary source and
(ii)Secondary source
Primary source:
These are materials of statistical investigation which were collected by the research for a particular purpose. They can be obtained through a survey, observation questionnaire or as experiment; the researcher has adopted the questionnaire method for this study.
Secondary source:
These are data from textbook Journal handset etc. they arise as byproducts of the same other purposes. Example administration, various other unpublished works and write ups were also used.
Population of the study
Population of a study is a group of persons or aggregate items, things the researcher is interested in getting information on effect of entrepreneurship education on students entrepreneurial psychosocial adjustment. 200 staffs of selected secondary schools in Anambra state was selected randomly by the researcher as the population of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION OF DATA
Introduction
Efforts will be made at this stage to present, analyze and interpret the data collected during the field survey. This presentation will be based on the responses from the completed questionnaires. The result of this exercise will be summarized in tabular forms for easy references and analysis. It will also show answers to questions relating to the research questions for this research study. The researcher employed simple percentage in the analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
It is important to ascertain that the objective of this study was the effect of entrepreneurship education on student’s entrepreneurial psychosocial adjustment. In the preceding chapter, the relevant data collected for this study were presented, critically analyzed and appropriate interpretation given. In this chapter, certain recommendations made which in the opinion of the researcher will be of benefits in addressing the challenges of entrepreneurship education on student’s entrepreneurial psychosocial adjustment
Summary
This study was on effect of entrepreneurship education on student’s entrepreneurial psychosocial adjustment. Four objectives were raised which included: To determine the level of awareness of the benefits of entrepreneurship in senior secondary schools in Anambra state, to determine the extent introduction of entrepreneurship education in senior secondary school curriculum heightens entrepreneurial psychosocial adjustments of secondary school students in Anambra state on the basis of their self-esteem, to ascertain whether Entrepreneurship education influences entrepreneurial psychosocial adjustments of students on the basis of social status, to the degree to which entrepreneurship education influences entrepreneurial psychosocial adjustments of students on the basis of self-efficacy and to ascertain the extent to which entrepreneurial education influences entrepreneurial psychosocial adjustments of students on the basis of their self-perception. In line with these objectives, two research hypotheses were formulated and two null hypotheses were posited. The total population for the study is 200 staffs of selected secondary schools in Anambra state. The researcher used questionnaires as the instrument for the data collection. Descriptive Survey research design was adopted for this study. A total of 133 respondents made principals, vice principals adm, senior staff and junior staff were used for the study. The data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using simple percentages and frequencies
Conclusion
The entrepreneurial intentions in students taking entrepreneurship education are significantly related to their demographic variables such as gender and parental employment status. It is also revealed that entrepreneurship education exposed to students creates in them entrepreneurship awareness and encourages them to demonstrate high level of commitment to entrepreneurship commitment as well as insulating a positive attitude towards business start-up.
Recommendation
This study has established the relevance of Entrepreneurship Education in reducing unemployment rate in the country. The following recommendations are therefore given to be positively considered. The duration and intensity of the entrepreneurship education should be increased beyond a semester’s course to realize a maximum impact on university students.
- Government should establish student enterprise centres for the students at all levels of education to provide business advice, mentorship and other practical support towards the realization of the self-employment aspirations of the students.
- Entrepreneurship education should be practical-oriented so as to sustain students’ interest.
- Government should give adequate attention to entrepreneurial development in the country through the provision of conducive economic environment.
- Government should provide link between the graduates and micro finance bank and other funding institutions. Adequate monitoring should be given to the beneficiaries of financial assistance
REFERENCES
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