Entrepreneurship Education Curriculum Content and New Venture Creation Among Graduates of Higher Education Institutions in Nigeria.

Abstract

he positive impact of a strong and vibrant entrepreneurship-driven private sector on the economic and social development of nations, has led to countries’ development and implementation of policies, programmes, and strategies to encourage individuals and groups’ participation in entrepreneurial activities. In Nigeria, one such policy is the compulsory introduction of Entrepreneurship Education (EE) in the curriculum of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) by their regulatory bodies aimed at producing graduates who will be self employed, reliant, and job creators. More than a decade since this policy was implemented, the rate of graduate unemployment in Nigeria has been experiencing exponential growth. It is against this background that this paper discussed the extent to which the entrepreneurship education curriculum content promotes new venture creation among graduates of Higher Education Institutions in Nigeria. The study observed that due to the multidisciplinary interest in the field of entrepreneurship which gave rise to multiplicity of objectives the development and design of EE curriculum content have been faced with some challenges. Also, students are not able to get the needed confidence, commitment and drive for the achievement of entrepreneurial goals and aspirations on graduation. Notwithstanding, effort should be made to make available a well-defined objective and an appropriate means of evaluating the success achieved through feedback from students which can be fed into the content development process and review