The Impact Of Entrepreneurship Skill Acquisition On Fresh Graduate Self-Employability Status: (A Study Of Olabisi Onabanjo University Fresh Graduate Students)

ABSTRACT

This study examines the impact of entrepreneurial skills acquisition on the employability status
of Nigerian graduates. Entrepreneurship education plays a major role in the reduction of
unemployment in Nigeria. However, while most Nigerian universities have initiated
entrepreneurship courses in their curricular; little research is available to assess its impact and
to know whether there is a between students’ entrepreneurial skills acquisition and their
employability status. This paper provides understanding of the entrepreneurial intentions of
small sampled Nigerian graduates.
It reports finding from quantitative data retrieved from questionnaire administered to 353
graduates of the Faculty of Social and Management Sciences that were selected through
stratified and simple random sampling. Analytical techniques used include frequency count,
percentages, and inferential statistics in the form of chi-square and degree of significance to
know the impact of entrepreneurship skill acquisition on students’ self-employability status.
The study found that exposure to entrepreneurship education influences students’ intentions of
becoming self-employed and improve their employability status. It was however discovered that
most students were not very confident about their intentions due to fear of capital, failure, and
lack of experience in business management. The study concludes that despite knowledge of
entrepreneurship education as a contributing factor in the reduction of unemployment, Nigerian
youth requires additional supports to overcome the foreseen challenges.