DIVERSIFICATION IN BUSINESS EDUCATION PROGRAMME TO ENHANCE ENTREPRENEURIAL READINESS OF STUDENTS FOR JOB CREATION IN ANAMBRA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The need to equip business education students with skills for self-reliance necessitated this study. The study determined the extent of diversification of business education programme for enhancing entrepreneurial readiness of students for job creation in Anambra State, Nigeria. Two research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted survey research design. A population of 111 business education lecturers in tertiary institutions in Anambra State was studied without sampling. A structured questionnaire containing 19 items in two sections, which was face validated by three experts in the field of business education, was used to collect data for the study. The reliability of the instrument was established using trial-testing method and data collected were calculated using Cronbach Alpha formula which yielded correlation co-efficients values of.89 and .81 were obtained for clusters B1 to B2 respectively with an overall value of .85. Data collected were analyzed using mean, standard deviation and t-test. The findings of the study showed that diversified teaching methods and funding strategies are lowly adopted for enhancing entrepreneurial readiness of business education students for job creation. Ownership of Institution was not a significant factor on respondents’ mean ratings on the extent of adoption of diversified teaching methods and funding strategies in business education. The researcher concluded that business education departments in public tertiary institutions in Anambra State are not highly diversifying their programme for enhancing entrepreneurial readiness of students for job creation It was recommended that Management of business education programmes in tertiary institutions in Anambra State should adopt and effectively implement well-articulated business education-industry partnership strategy to ensure that the actual funding needs of the programme are addressed. This will facilitate the provision of modern teaching resources needed for adoption of diversified teaching methods to effectively train students in skill acquisition and capacity building.