Entrepreneurship Education and Entrepreneurial Competency among Graduates of Nigerian Tertiary Institutions

This study examines entrepreneurship education (EE) and entrepreneurial competencies (EC) among graduates of Nigerian tertiary institutions. EE as the independent variable was considered in the dimensions of course curriculum (CC), lecturers’ competence (LC), instructional materials (IM), and course duration (CD), with EC as dependent variable. Survey design was used to collect cross-sectional data from 497 National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members in Katsina (registered in Batch B, Stream 2, and September 2021). A 5-point Likert scale questionnaire was used to collect the data, while multiple regression analysis was used to analyse it. CC, LC, and CD had significant positive effect on EC while IM shows no significant effect. It was recommended that managers and administrators of entrepreneurship programmes, and policy makers, should seek to; better the state of the CC, LC, IM, and CD in the tertiary institutions; review the curriculum of the entrepreneurship education programme in the tertiary institutions to have a good balance of theory or knowledge and practical applications or practice; add an additional two semesters to the present duration of two semesters, for desired development of EC; conduct regular training and retraining of lecturers/instructors for competence in EE teaching; encourage more studies to be done to investigate other factors like adequate funding, that may better explain the variations in EC.