Journal of Education and Human Development

The Attitudes of Higher Degree Students to Entrepreneurial Skills Training in Early Childhood Education
Victoria I. Iroegbu (PhD)

Abstract
Currently there is high level of unemployment existing among Nigerian citizens living in Nigeria. Nigerian population has been estimated to be around 186 million inhabitants, among who are 93.3 million youth aged between 15 and 54 years. 80 percent of these youths or 75 million of them are unemployed. These numbers do not include millions of dependent women, the elderly and children. Children below 14 years old number 79 million. The impact of unemployment in the land is therefore grave. To worsen the unemployment situation, the Nigerian Universities graduated 250,000 youths this year who joined the job market, without any appreciable skills. However, most Nigerian universities and colleges, and some non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have reacted to the situation by introducing various entrepreneurial skills training programmes along with their academic courses. The skills training programmes prepare the trainees for various types of jobs or self employment on graduation. This study evaluated the attitudes of postgraduate early childhood education (ECE) students to entrepreneurial skills training sessions in early childhood education sector. The study is a descriptive one, employing a purposive sampling technique. The sample consisted of 38 early childhood education majors who have spent one semester on the course, and have participated in both the course work and entrepreneurial skills training for ECE majors. The instrument was a researcher constructed Entrepreneurial Skills Attitude Scale (ESAS), with a validity of .78.The analysis of ESAS reveal that 95 percent of the sample enjoy the entrepreneurial skills training; 87 percent hope to establish their own ECE ventures on graduation; 84 percent preferred to be self employed on graduation and 53 percent chose to engage in production of children’s literature. Gender and age were not significant factors in the attitudes of trainees. It was recommended that the entrepreneurial training program be strengthened.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/jehd.v6n1a18