Generic skills for successful self-employment in Tanzania

Abstract

This paper assessed the influence of generic skills for successful self-employment in Tanzania. It specifically determined the extent to which generic skills are possessed by self-employed people; investigated the participation of self-employed people in work-related training for acquiring and updating generic skills; and examined the influence of generic skills on self-employment. The data were collected using questionnaire from 300 self-employed people sampled through stratified random sampling technique. The collected data were analyzed using Descriptive Statistics and Multiple Linear Regressions. The findings demonstrate that, perceptional skills, soft skills and risk-benefit skills were possessed to large extent while functional business skills and relevant business skills were possessed to small extent by self-employed people. Additionally, more than 50% of the surveyed self-employed people did not participate in work-related training for acquiring and updating generic skills. Finally, the studied generic skills had statistically significant and positive relationship with self-employment. The study recommended continuous training to be carried to the self-employed people to help them acquire and update generic skills which influence their performance in self-employment.