The Effect of Entrepreneurship Education Programme on Nigerian Graduates’ Entrepreneurial Intentions

Nigeria introduced entrepreneurship education programme in the undergraduate curriculum as a compulsory module in all its universities, with the objective of nurturing entrepreneurial intentions in the university graduates. This study evaluated the programme by investigating its effectiveness in nurturing entrepreneurial intentions in university graduates. The primary objective was to determine the effect of the entrepreneurship education programme on the entrepreneurial intentions of the graduates. The research was a sequential explanatory design, a mixed method of quantitative study followed by a qualitative study. The quantitative study was implemented through cross-sectional survey and quasi-experimental designs with two samples of 409 graduates who constituted the experimental group and 402 undergraduates who formed the control group while the qualitative study was implemented through in-depth interviews with six entrepreneurship education programme lecturers. All the samples were drawn from six universities in Nigeria. Furthermore, the theoretical framework was the theory of planned behaviour. Using the structural equation modelling (SEM) - AMOS, the quantitative study modelled the effects of entrepreneurship education programme proxied by traditional teaching methods and innovative teaching methods, and cultural values on the entrepreneurial intentions of university graduates with personal attitude and subjective norm as mediating variables. Findings revealed that teaching methods have only partial effect on entrepreneurial intentions. Cultural values affect entrepreneurial intentions indirectly through personal attitude and subjective norm. In addition, personal attitude and subjective norm were found to be significant in predicting entrepreneurial intentions. Fundamentally, the entrepreneurship education programme resulted in the decline of the entrepreneurial intentions of the graduates and as such has an adverse effect. The programme had no effect on the personal attitudes of the graduates. The qualitative study confirmed the quantitative finding that the lecturers employ mostly traditional teaching methods with lecture method as the most common. It also found that the lecturers have no qualifications in entrepreneurship education and are not given the relevant training. It can be concluded that the entrepreneurship education programme is ineffective in nurturing entrepreneurial intentions and is disadvantageous as a measure to curb graduate unemployment in Nigeria. The research has several implications for policy including: the possibility to provide a framework for policy reforms in entrepreneurship education programme undergraduate curriculum and policy reforms regarding evaluation and monitoring of the programme.