Roles of Entrepreneurship Education in Enhancing Entrepreneurial Mindset Development and Business Creation among Vocational Education Students in South East, Nigeria

Abstract

The study was guided by three objectives, three research questions and two null hypotheses. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. It was conducted in three federal universities in South East, Nigeria. The population of the study was 216 which comprised 106 vocational education lecturers, 40 technical instructors and 70 vocational education students. Structured questionnaire was used for data collection. The questionnaire was face validated by three experts. The validated instrument was trial tested on 30 respondents (15 lecturers, 5 technical instructors and 10 vocational education students) in University of Benin, Benin City. The data generated from the trial testing were analyzed using Cronbach Alpha reliability test and the coefficients obtained were 0.82, 0.84, and 0.83 for the three research questions respectively and a grand value of 0.83 co- efficient. The questionnaires were administered to the respondents by the researcher and three research assistants. Data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation while ANOVA was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed ten (10) roles entrepreneurship education plays in enhancing entrepreneurial mindset development and business creation among vocational education students; nine (9) challenges hindering effective entrepreneurial mindset development and business creation among vocational education students; and twelve (12) strategies for improving entrepreneurship education for effective entrepreneurial mindset development. Based on the findings, it was concluded that effective entrepreneurship education is a key to inculcating entrepreneurial mindset to vocational education students. The  study therefore recommended  among  others that vocational  education curriculum planners should integrate adequate entrepreneurship education courses into vocational education curriculum.