Chapter one

This study sought to find out the relationship between entrepreneurship education and job creation. The findings have far reaching implications for unemployment among youths in Benue state. It was found that undergraduate students acquire entrepreneurial skills after completing entrepreneurship education course. This implies that the students used for the study have identified available career options through entrepreneurship education, gained good understanding of economics and free enterprise to start and sustain new businesses, have knowledge about the practical details needed to start a business, have ability to develop business ideas with ease, have ability to identify creative ways of getting things done with limited resources, identification of solution to problems and willingness to work hard to set up good businesses. These are some of the skills that enhance business competence that will adequately prepare students to take up self employment after graduation. Therefore, the undergraduate students used for this study have gained skills that will positively impact on their job creation ability for economic development in the state.

It was also found that the skills undergraduate students acquire after entrepreneurship education course positively influences their entrepreneurial career intention. This implies that students become more entrepreneurially oriented and are influenced towards entrepreneurship after undertaking the courses. Their entrepreneurship abilities are raised after the course, they tend to think of taking up entrepreneurship as a career option after graduation from school. A deduction from the findings is that entrepreneurship education creates an inspiring awareness to business opportunity, provides exposure to entrepreneurship processes, builds confidence, equip students with knowledge and skills and engender job creation and self-employment as a career option.

The study further revealed that there is a moderate positive relationship between the entrepreneurship skills students acquire and self-productivity. The implication of this finding is that these undergraduate students have received enough training that will enable them establish a career in small and medium size businesses that will enable them create employment opportunities for themselves and others to reduce the high rate of unemployment for sustainable economic growth and development. Hence self-productivity has positive relationship with entrepreneurship education.

Relationship was also found between entrepreneurship education skills and poverty alleviation. This implies that the entrepreneurship skills which undergraduate students acquire leads to job creation for poverty alleviation. Students acquire innovate ideas through entrepreneurship education and transform them into profitable business activities that absolve the unemployment and hence alleviate poverty.

The hypotheses tested also indicated that there is significant relationship between the skills undergraduate students acquire after an entrepreneurship education course and their entrepreneurial career intention, self-productivity and poverty alleviation. This influence student’s career intention, self-productivity and poverty alleviation through job creation.