Entrepreneurship Education and Uundergraduates’ Attitude to Self-Employment: A Case Study of a

Abstract

Entrepreneurship Education (EE) and undergraduates’ attitude of Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, Nigeria, (OAU), to self-employment were examined. Over one thousand students enrolled for the special electives in 2006/2007 academic session. These students were administered with questionnaire, pre- and post- entrepreneurship education. Out of these, six hundred students were randomly selected as the sample size, consisting of three hundred each for both pre-intervention and post-intervention exposure respectively. A control group which consisted of 156 students, chosen randomly , was also set up to compare the perception of students who were exposed to EE as against those who were not exposed to EE Data generated were analyzed using simple frequency and percentage tables. The study revealed that about 94% of respondents indicated their preference for self-employment after the post- intervention exposure as against 14.7% of respondents from the control group. Comparing the results of the pre-and post-intervention survey of exposing undergraduates to EE as against the result from the control group, it was observed that EE had great impression on those exposed. Furthermore, the various responses from the post intervention survey showed that the experience of EE has enriched their knowledge on starting and owning business, In addition, it has also changed their perception about self-employment. Recommendations and implementation for including EE into tertiary curricula were also given.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship-education, intervention, self- employment, undergraduates, universities, curricula, Nigeria