Impact of Entrepreneurship Education in Curbing Unemployment as Perceived by Graduate Youth in Ilorin Metropolis: Implication for Professional Counsellors

Abstract

Entrepreneurship education has continued to feature in most conferences because of its relevance in mitigating unemployment. The importance of entrepreneurship cannot be over emphasized especially among youth in the developing countries. Therefore, this study examined the impact of entrepreneurship education in curbing unemployment as perceived by graduate youth in Ilorin Metropolis. The research design adopted for this study was a descriptive survey method. The instrument that was adopted for collecting data for this study was a researcher-designed questionnaire titled: Impact of Entrepreneurship Education on Unemployment Questionnaire (IEEUQ). The questionnaire was divided into two sections (section A & B). Section A is all about the demographic information of the respondents while section B contained items on the impact of entrepreneurship education on unemployment. A reliability co-efficient of 0.72 was obtained; hence the instrument was statistically reliable. Two hundred and ten (210) questionnaires were administered to youth who graduated from different universities within Ilorin metropolis using snowball sampling techniques. The data was analyzed and presented in percentages, t-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) statistical procedures. Four null hypotheses were formulated for the study and tested at 0.05 alpha level of significance. The findings of this study indicated that entrepreneurship education has positive impact on unemployment reduction because it creates job opportunities for youth, it can also lead to the development of new business opportunities and at the same time, it increases the level of youth’s creativity among others. The study recommended that there should be consistent entrepreneurship training for  undergraduates in order  to further reduce the rate of unemployment in the country as they  graduate. Also the government should make entrepreneurship education compulsory for all students at all levels in the university before graduating.