ENTREPRENEURIAL COMPETENCIES REQUIRED OF UNIVERSITY BUSINESS EDUCATION STUDENTS FOR ESTABLISHMENT OF SMALL-SCALE BUSINESS VENTURES IN ABIA STATE

Abstract

The study focussed on entrepreneurial competencies required of university Business Education students for establishment of small-scale business ventures in Abia State. Two research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. Population of the study comprised of 150Business Education students from universities in Abia State. There was no sampling because the population of the study was manageable, thus; the use of the entire population. A structured questionnaire was developed by the researcher from extensive review of literatures which was titled “Entrepreneurial Competencies required by Business Education Students' Questionnaire” (ECRBESQ)was used for data collection. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while t-test was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings showed that entrepreneurship competencies highly required of university Business Education students for establishment of small-scale business ventures in Abia State include behavioural and problem-solving competencies. Based on the findings, it was concluded that university Business Education students highly required entrepreneurial competencies to successfully establish and manage owned businesses on graduation. Based on the findings and conclusion, it was recommended among others that university business educators should adopt suitable strategies to ensure that their students adequately acquire behavioural and problem-solving competencies to enable them establish and effectively manage small-scale businesses to satisfy the needs of their customers in different aspects.