INTEGRATING ENTREPRENEURSHIP TECHNIQUES IN METALWORK PROGRAMME OF TECHNICAL COLLEGES FOR SELF-EMPLOYMENT IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The study was aimed at identifying entrepreneurship techniques needed in metalwork programme of technical colleges to meet the demand of self-employment in Nigeria. The population for the study consisted of 51 Metalwork Instructors from technical colleges in the South East, Nigeria. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire developed by the researcher. The respondents were the 51 metalwork Instructors teaching in eleven technical colleges in the South East States. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions 1 & 2. The findings of the study revealed that metalwork programme in technical colleges needed the following entrepreneurship techniques: techniques for planning, budgeting, funding, personnel management and control, networking, product patenting, intellectual property preservation, mass production, marketing and strategy of monopoly in entrepreneurship. Based on the findings, conclusions were drawn after which the following recommendations were made among which were that: Government, in collaboration with successful entrepreneurs should establish entrepreneurship programme for students post-graduation internship to promote business management ability for self-employed graduates; Government should also influence local companies to extend post-graduation internship programmes to industrial space, where graduates of technical colleges in metalwork could freely gain entrepreneurship experience, without having to hit and miss in their individual search for internship placement; Government should seriously adhere to the foregoing recommendations if metalwork graduates must succeed in the business of self-employment.