STRENGTHENING ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION IN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS: A STRATEGY FOR JOB CREATION AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Entrepreneurship education has been described as a great tool for job creation. With unemployment on the rise, this paper examines how strengthening entrepreneurship education in tertiary institutions can bring about job creation and sustainable development. The study was descriptive survey in nature. Three research questions were raised to guide the study. The population of the comprised all the entrepreneurs (registered business owners in Imo State) and entrepreneurship education lecturers/instructors in the 6 tertiary institutions in Imo State. The sample size of the study comprised 60 entrepreneurship lecturers/instructors and 50 entrepreneurs selected using simple random sampling technique. The instrument for data collection was a validated researcher designed questionnaire tagged “Strengthening Entrepreneurship Education for Sustainable Development Questionnaire (SEESDQ)”. A reliability coefficient of 0.73 was obtained using Cronbach Alpha Method to test the reliability. Data collected were analyzed using weighted mean. The finding of the study shows that more practically based entrepreneurship instruction, allocation of significant time in entrepreneurship instruction and specialization of students in an aspect of entrepreneurship education equip graduates with self-sufficient skills for sustainable development. It was recommended among others that practical oriented skills of teaching entrepreneurship education should replace the traditional method of teach-and-listen.