In 2006 or thereabouts, entrepreneurship education was formally introduced in Nigerian tertiary institutions. The introduction was met with a lot of hope and high expectations. It was believed that exposing students to entrepreneurship education could help alleviate the challenge of unemployment in the country. However, over a decade later, it seems that the problem of unemployment is still only being scratched the surface. In fact, the conundrum of unemployment appears to have worsened.
The recent statistics on unemployment released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reveal that the number of economically active individuals in the working-age population (15-64 years of age) during the fourth quarter of 2020 was 122,049,400. This is 4.3 per cent higher than the figure recorded in the second quarter of 2020, which was 116,871,186. Furthermore, the unemployment rate during the period was 33.3 per cent, an increase from the 27.1 per cent recorded in the second quarter of 2020. These figures confirm that the challenge is not abating. One then wonders how impactful entrepreneurship education in our tertiary institutions has been. Do the educators have what it takes to impart the necessary knowledge? How industry-compliant or 21st-century compliant is the curriculum of our nation’s entrepreneurship education?
While the questions raised above need to be answered, it is imperative to focus on the motives and objectives of introducing entrepreneurship education in the nation’s tertiary institutions. Available literature has identified the following objectives of entrepreneurship education:
- Provide graduates with the necessary skills to be creative.
- Provide small and medium-sized companies with the opportunity to recruit graduates who possess relevant skills to manage business enterprises.
- Provide graduates with sufficient training skills to meet the manpower needs of society.
- Provide graduates with adequate training in risk management due to the uncertain business environment.
- Stimulate industrial and economic growth in rural and less developed areas.
- Offer functional education for youths to enable them to be self-employed and self-reliant.
- Provide graduate youths with adequate training to be creative and innovative in identifying novel business opportunities.
- Serve as a catalyst for economic growth and development.
- Reduce the high rate of unemployment, underemployment, and poverty among graduate youths.
- Reduce rural-urban migration of graduate youths.
- Provide graduate youths with sufficient training and support to establish careers in small and medium-scale businesses.
From these objectives, it is clear that entrepreneurship education aims to reduce the high rates of unemployment, underemployment, and poverty among graduate youths while acting as a catalyst for economic growth and development. However, it is ironic that instead of achieving these lofty objectives, unemployment appears to have reached an all-time high in the country. In fact, many who claim to be employed are actually underemployed. This challenge has given rise to vices such as banditry, kidnapping and armed robbery, among others. What could be wrong with this laudable idea? Could it be that we got it wrong from the start? I believe the foundation must have been shaky, as my findings reveal that lecturers were initially drafted from various departments to teach entrepreneurship. While this may not be entirely wrong, these lecturers should have been exposed to global best practices in entrepreneurship. After all, one cannot give what they do not have. It’s a case of “if the foundation is destroyed, what can the righteous do?” The necessary seriousness that the education required at the beginning was not accorded to it.
Although institutes of entrepreneurship studies have sprung up with formal structures being put in place, not much has been accomplished, as undergraduates are still being exposed to vocational training rather than scalable skills. What we see in most of the entrepreneurship laboratories in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions are training [sessions] on soap making, sewing, fish farming, among others. Undoubtedly, this is an improvement on the initial theory-based entrepreneurship education, but much more needs to be done for the education to be valuable for Nigerian graduates and youths. Soft skills such as problem-solving and critical thinking should be embedded into entrepreneurship education. This is important because entrepreneurs are not only meant to own businesses but also to creatively innovate in order to solve problems wherever they find themselves, whether in paid employment or their own business. Unfortunately, entrepreneurship education is not effectively achieving this goal.
The approach to entrepreneurship education must change. The starting point is to align the curriculum with the myriad problems plaguing our society. The curriculum must be customised to solve these problems. Those who will teach the curriculum must be trained and retrained. In fact, we need more professors of practice, as is seen in some advanced countries. A lecturer whose research outcomes cannot solve any problem in society may not be able to teach others how to solve societal problems. We need to change our current approach if we want to achieve different results.
Furthermore, entrepreneurship requires collaborative efforts, and so does entrepreneurship education. Institutes of entrepreneurship studies in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions must, as a matter of necessity, begin to collaborate with industry players and other key stakeholders if the education provided to undergraduates is to be 21st-century compliant and useful in society. Internships should not only be for the purpose of obtaining high grades but also to acquire functional training that can be readily applied while students are still in school. In fact, internships should be modelled after apprenticeships that lead to the ability to solve practical problems.
While vocational training in sewing, tie and dye and soap-making is valuable, these skills may not bring about the desired economic growth and development if not powered by technology. There are government institutions in Nigeria that conduct research into and teach technological entrepreneurship, such as the National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM), an agency of the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, which has worked extensively with development partners like the World Bank in this area. Our tertiary institutions should collaborate with such institutions. In the 21st Century, knowledge is currency and knowledge becomes cutting-edge when institutions collaborate and exchange ideas. To elevate entrepreneurship education to the level of a problem-solving tool, technology must be deployed, and institutes of entrepreneurship must interact and interface with experts in technology education.
In addition to the solutions highlighted above for addressing the unemployment conundrum using entrepreneurship education, it is crucial that tracer studies be conducted by institutes of entrepreneurship studies in our tertiary institutions. This is important for two reasons: to measure the impact of entrepreneurship education on its recipients and to use those recipients as a source of inspiration for those who follow. If those who are coming behind know that those who have gone ahead of them are succeeding with the knowledge they acquired, it will serve as a morale booster for them.
Unemployment or underemployment is a menace. It enables vices and affects individuals socioeconomically and psychologically. The problems associated with unemployment can be best depicted, in the words of Asmund Aamass et al., thus “since employment is a key source of identity and an organisational frame for daily life in our cultures, unemployed individuals suffer psychological and social distress. It is well-researched that unemployment is connected with negative health consequences. Unemployment leads to stress-related illnesses and lowered self-esteem due to unmet psychological and social needs, such as time structure, social interaction, common goals, status, identity, recognition, uncertainty about the future, financial instability, and loss of vocational identity… That is why questions of coping become key issues.” The best way to cope is to have scalable skills. These scalable skills are nurtured through entrepreneurship education that is tailored towards solving societal problems. It is time to rethink, repackage, and revitalise entrepreneurship education in our tertiary institutions. This can become a quick reality if universities collaborate with research institutes, especially those within the Federal Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, who actively pursues commercialisation opportunities with a multitude of inventions.
