Effect of Entrepreneurship Education on Graduates’ Business Start-Up in North Central Nigeria

摘要

Over the years, numerous graduates have acquired entrepreneurial knowledge and skills from tertiary institutions; despite the prominent role entrepreneurship education plays in providing these graduates with the opportunities to gain the knowledge, skills, career aspiration and culture needed for business start-up or new ventures, studies have not shown the extent to which, this knowledge has helped them to venture in to new business as a means of livelihood. The paper thus undertakes an empirical analysis to examine the relationships that exist between entrepreneurship education and tertiary institutions graduates’ business start-up in North Central Nigeria. Descriptive survey research design was employed; and graduates were sampled using Yaro Yamane sampling Formula. Similarly, the researcher adopted a structured questionnaire which included the general entrepreneurship education and business start-up test in gathering information. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and logistic regression was used in testing two hypotheses. The major finding of this study revealed that entrepreneurial career aspirations have a significant impact on graduates’ business start-up. More so, the study result shows that entrepreneurial culture has impacted on graduate’s business start-up significantly. The study recommended amongst other recommendations, that tertiary institutions and government need to play more proactive role by devising a strategy to assist the students that indicate their intention to start enterprise while in school and after graduation through incubator program. This will encourage graduates career aspiration towards business Start-up and further motivate graduates entrepreneurial attitude towards self-employments.