ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION AND ACQUISITION OF EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS AMONG BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION STUDENTS OF UNIVERSITY OF UYO

Throughout the world, entrepreneurship education remains the bedrock for acquiring employable skills by graduates for employment upon graduation. Unfortunately, many countries face economic challenges and immense pressure on higher education to produce quality graduates who can turn around economies with their specialist knowledge and skills. The study examines how entrepreneurship education enhances employability skills acquisition among undergraduate students in Nigeria, with the view to equipping them with employable skills for uphill tasks upon graduation using the University of Uyo as a case study. Five objectives, research questions and hypotheses formulated to guide the study were tested using the mean score and chi-square statistical methods respectively. Political Economy theoretical approach with a survey-based descriptive research design was adopted for the study. The population was drawn from 200 level students of 2019/2020 sessions in the Faculty of Business Administration at the University of Uyo with a sample size of 475 using a simple random sampling technique to select a sample for the study. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire titled “Students’ Employability Skills Acquisition Scale (SESAS). The validity of the instrument was determined by two experts and the reliability coefficient range was 0.7- 0.78. The null hypotheses were tested using the chi-square statistical method and all were rejected and the alternate hypotheses were retained. The findings revealed that entrepreneurship education influences the acquisition of employability skills of students at the University of Uyo, Nigeria. The study recommended among others that government should provide the needed equipment and facilities to make the teaching of entrepreneurship education practically oriented in all universities across the country.

在全球范围内，创业教育（entrepreneurship education）始终是毕业生获取就业技能、实现毕业即就业的基石。遗憾的是，许多国家面临经济挑战，高等教育亦承受着巨大压力——需培养出凭借专业知识与技能扭转经济局面的优质毕业生。

本研究以尼日利亚乌约大学（University of Uyo）为案例，探讨创业教育如何提升该国本科生的就业技能获取能力，旨在为其配备应对毕业后艰巨任务所需的就业技能。

本研究制定了五项研究目标、研究问题及假设，并分别采用均值评分与卡方检验（chi-square）统计方法进行验证。研究采用政治经济学（Political Economy）理论视角，结合基于调查的描述性研究设计。

研究对象选取自乌约大学工商管理学院（Faculty of Business Administration）2019/2020学年二年级学生，采用简单随机抽样法选取475名样本。

数据收集工具为结构化问卷，题为《学生就业技能获取量表》（Students’ Employability Skills Acquisition Scale, SESAS）。该工具的效度由两位专家评定，信度系数范围为0.7至0.78。

零假设（null hypotheses）通过卡方统计方法检验后均被拒绝，备择假设得以保留。研究结果显示，创业教育对尼日利亚乌约大学学生的就业技能获取具有显著影响。

本研究提出多项建议，其中包括：政府应提供必要的设备与设施，使全国所有高校的创业教育教学更注重实践导向。