Business education students’ developed entrepreneurial competencies and intention to be self-employed after graduation from Degree Awarding Institutions In Rivers State

Abstract

This study investigated correlation between Business Education students’ entrepreneurial competencies and their intention to be self-employed after graduation  from degree awarding institutions in Rivers State. Two research questions and one hypothesis were posed to guide the study. Descriptive survey research design  was adopted for the study. The population and sample of the study was made up of 359 undergraduate final year Business Education students who offered  Entrepreneurship Education during the 2020/2021 academic year in three degree awarding institutions in Rivers State. Researchers designed structured  questionnaire was used for data collection. Cronbach alpha coefficient of an average of 0.73 was used to test for the reliability of the instrument. Data collected for  the study were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions. Simple linear regression was used test the hypothesis. All  computations were done using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 21.0. The results revealed that Business Education students developed  entrepreneurial knowledge, skills and attitude after being exposed to entrepreneurship education in degree awarding institutions in Rivers State. The results also  revealed that to a high extent, Business Education students exposed to EE intend to be self-employed after graduation. The results also revealed that Business Education students developed entrepreneurial competencies, predicted their intention to be self-employed after graduation from degree awarding institutions in  Rivers State. It was recommended among others that ,Centre for Entrepreneurship Development in collaboration with Entrepreneurship Educators should provide  Business Education with opportunity to develop a good understanding of the various sources of funding new venture open to them.