Entrepreneurial Skills Possessed by Auto Technology Self Employed Graduates in Nasarawa State
CHAPTER ONE
Purpose of the Study
The general purpose of the study is to determine the entrepreneurial skills possessed by auto technology self employed graduates in Nasarawa State. Specifically, the study sought to identify the:
- Technical skills possessed by auto technology self employed graduates for entrepreneurialventures
- Managerial skills possessed by auto technology self employed graduates for entrepreneurialventures
- Financial management skills possessed by auto technology self employed graduates for entrepreneurialventures
- Marketing skills possessed by auto technology self employed graduates for entrepreneurial ventures
- Communication skills possessed by auto technology self employed graduates for entrepreneurial ventures
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
The literature related to this study is reviewed under the following sub-headings:
Conceptual Framework
- Concept of Entrepreneurship
- Concept of Vocational and TechnicalCollege
- Technical College Education
- Auto Technology in Technical Colleges
- Concept of Skills
- Entrepreneurial Skills
Theoretical Framework
- Leadership Path-GoalTheory
- Socio-Cultural Theory
- Model of Economic Development
Related Empirical Studies
Conceptual Framework
Conceptual framework is seen as analytical tool with several variation and context. Huberman (1994) define a conceptual framework as a visual or written product, one that “explains either graphically or in narrative form, the main things to be studied-the key factors-concepts or variables-and the presumed relationship among them. Thus, human capital theory provides a framework for examining the impact of acquired variables such as education, learning and experience on career outcomes and it was further developed on the assumption that education can serve as a key determinant of decision choice and providing benefit to specific ventures (Ojeifo, 2013). In recognition to this fact, Adejimola and Olufunmilaya (2009) and Ojeifo (2013) opined that education should be designed with a view to create and enhance the entrepreneurial initiative and activities of the learner. The bottom line here is to inculcate the spirit of entrepreneurship in the student through education. A framework is the structure of ideas and how they are arranged to give a functional meaning to an event. However, conceptual framework, as used in the context of this study involves the explanation of the major variables that are used for the purpose of a study. The concepts in this study include: Concept of entrepreneurship, auto technology, concept of skills, entrepreneurial skills, technical, managerial, financial, among other skills for self employed graduates in Nasarawa state. These concepts will be explained in order to substantiate and give meaning to the study as follows:
CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY
This chapter presents the procedure to be adopted for the study under the following sub-headings: design of the study, area of the study, population for the study, instrument for data collection, validation of the instrument, reliability of the instrument, method of data collection and method of data analysis.
Design of the Study
The study was conducted using survey research design. Descriptive research design, according to Olaitan and Nwoke (1999), is one which the entire population or representative sample is studied by collecting and analyzing data from the group through the use of questionnaire. Similarly, Nworgu (2006) defined survey research design as that design that centers on people, their beliefs, opinion, attitudes and behaviour. Descriptive survey design is suitable for the study since information will be solicited from the respondents (auto technology entrepreneurial) and (auto technology employees) on the entrepreneurial skills possessed by auto technology self employed graduates in the three senatorial zones in Nasarawa State.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA
This chapter presents the analysis of data collected in the course of the study. The presentation and analysis is organized in tables and is arranged according to research questions and hypothesis formulated for the study.
CHAPTER FIVE
Summary, Conclusion and Recommendations
This chapter contains the re-statement of the problem, summary of procedure used, and the major findings of the study, implications of the study, conclusion, recommendations and suggestions for further study.
Re-statement of the problem
Important measures has been employed by the past administrations in Nasarawa state in areas like; fiscal incentive, grants, bilateral and multilateral support to aid educational institutions in the state especially in technical and entrepreneurial development. However, auto technology graduates from technical colleges who are expected to have possessed the entrepreneurial skills for self-employment and join the team of entrepreneurs in the country for economic growth and industrial development do not seem to possess the entrepreneurial skills. The graduates are in most case rejected by employers because they do not possess the entrepreneurial skills.
The graduates, who are mostly teenagers, leave to different parts of this country for menial jobs particularly as bus conductors, commercial motorcyclist and hawkers, farmers among others. This has further increased the youth negative behavior in the state as most anti-social acts including thuggery, militancy, restiveness, and ethnic political clashes. The graduates would have established in entrepreneurial ventures and do better if they had been taught the entrepreneurial skills in the school. Hence, there is need for auto technology graduates to possess the entrepreneurial skills for self employment in Nasarawa state.
Specifically, the study determine:
- Technical skills possessed by auto technology self-employed graduates for entrepreneurial ventures
- Managerial skills possessed by auto technology self-employed graduates for entrepreneurial ventures
- Financial management skills possessed by auto technology self-employed graduates for entrepreneurial ventures
- Marketing skills possessed by auto technology self employed graduates for entrepreneurial ventures
- Communication skills possessed by auto technology self-employed graduates for entrepreneurial
Summary of procedures used
The study adopted survey research design. The population for the study consist 110 respondents which include 30 auto technology entrepreneurs and 80 auto technology employees drawn from 30 registered small scale auto technology self employed graduates in the three senatorial zones of Nasarawa state. The entire population was involved in the study. A structured questionnaire consisting 100 items was developed and used for data collection.
The questionnaire was face-validation by three experts. Three of them are from Department of Vocational Teacher Education, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The experts were requested to assess the items of the instrument in terms of clarity and appropriateness in addressing the problem of the study and research questions under investigation. The expert’s corrections, suggestions and recommendations were incorporated in the final draft of the instrument. Crombach alpha method was used to estimate the reliability coefficient of the
instrument. A total of 110 copies of the questionnaire were administered on the respondent by the researcher with the aid of three trained research assistants. The completed questionnaires were collected after the interval of one week. The data collected were analyzed using mean for answering the five research questions while t-test statistic was use to test the five null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance.
Major findings
Base on the data collected and analyzed, the following are the major findings of which auto technology self employed graduates should possess for entrepreneurial ventures.
- Thirty six technical skills to be possessed by auto technology self employed graduates for entrepreneurial
- Sixteen managerial skills to be possessed by auto technology elf employed graduates for entrepreneurial ventures
- Eleven financial management skills to be possessed by auto technology self employed graduates for entrepreneurial ventures
- Twenty one marketing skills to be possessed by auto technology self employed graduates for entrepreneurial ventures
- Sixteen communication skills to be possessed by auto technology self employed graduates for entrepreneurial ventures
- There was no significant difference in the mean responses of auto technology entrepreneurs and auto technology employees on the technical skills possessed by auto technology self employed graduates for entrepreneurial
- There was no significant difference in the mean responses of auto technology entrepreneurs and auto technology employees on the managerial skills possessed by auto technology self-employed graduates for entrepreneurial
- There was no significant difference in the mean response of auto technology entrepreneurs and auto technology employees on the financial management skills possessed by auto technology self employed graduates for entrepreneurial ventures
- There was no significant difference in the mean responses of auto technology entrepreneurs and auto technology employees on the marketing skills possessed by auto technology self employed graduates for entrepreneurial
- There was no significant difference in the mean responses of auto technology entrepreneurs and auto technology employees on the communication skills possessed by auto technology self employed graduates for entrepreneurial
Implication of the study
The findings of this study had implication for graduates of auto technology from technical colleges, technical teachers and the government. Graduates of auto technology will have confidence on the training received on entrepreneurial skills and the use of these skills to improve their performance effectively in business operation.
Teacher of auto technology will found it necessary to learn more on the wider range of skills required for teaching the students, the auto technology and entrepreneurial concept especially for entrepreneurial development since these types of skills are not incorporated in the curriculum. In addition, the teachers will now educate their students on various entrepreneurial skills as; technical skills, managerial skills, financial skills, marketing skills and communication skill for entrepreneurial ventures.
The government through her National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) as regulatory body in curriculum development would use the findings from the study to in- corporate suitable programmes/modules that can enhance entrepreneurial skills for self- reliance in the country.
Conclusion
Base on the findings of the study, the following conclusions were drawn:
There are many unemployed graduates of auto technology from technical colleges due to lack of technical and entrepreneurial skills which cover skills in technical, managerial, financial, and marketing and communication. The study was carried out and found that the graduates required these skills for self-employment in Nasarawa state.
Recommendations
Base on the findings of the study, the following recommendations were made:
- All the skills identified in this study should be packaged and use to retain the graduates of auto technology as prospective entrepreneurs in the
- There should be regular seminar, workshops and conferences for teachers, students and the general public to strengthen and refocus on entrepreneurial
- Youth should be introduced to entrepreneurial activities at their early stage to enable them grow alongside with it in and out-of-school
- Entrepreneurship subjects should be introduced as one of the compulsory subjects in all secondary schools in the country. Through this methods students who transcend into technical institutions to the university level, would have become conversant with the tenets of entrepreneurial
- Government should increase the budget for the implementation of this policy on mandatory entrepreneurship education and the budgeted sum should be released in order to actualize the purpose of the
- Government should provide initial capital in for of soft loan with little or no interest to the prospective graduates who intend floating their
Suggestions for further study
The following are suggested for further studies:
- Skills improvement needs of technical teachers for effective teaching of auto technology repairs and maintenance work to student of technical colleges in Nasarawa state.
- Entrepreneurial skills possessed by auto technology self-employed graduates in other states of the
- Entrepreneurial competencies require by technologist for success in small scale automobile maintenance industry in Nasarawa
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