EFFECT OF SKILL ACQUISITION PROGRAMMES ON ENTREPRENEURIAL DEVELOPMENT

AdesolaOluremi Babalola-Emmanuel¹&OdebiyiItunu Iyabo²

¹Department of Business Administration and Management,

Federal Polytechnic, Bida, Nigeria

E-mails: dessybjay@yahoo.com&itunuodebiyi@gmail.com

ABSTRACT     

The reason why many technicians earn fat incomes than some university graduates in advanced countries is because the technicians acquired more practical skills than the graduates who acquired theoretical knowledge while in the universities. Skills development is very crucial to Nigeria’s economic growth and development and this necessitated the establishment of the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) to develop positive mind-set among the youths towards self-employment after graduation. To this end, the major objective of this study is to examine the relationship between skill acquisition programmes undertaken by the ITF and entrepreneurial development in Nigeria. The study’s population consisted of 250 trainee entrepreneurs undergoing training at ITF training facility in Abuja. Descriptive design was adopted with administration of questionnaire to beneficiaries of ITF training programmes. Analytical tools include the use of percentages, tabular presentation and chi-square (X²) for hypothesis testing. The findings indicate that some entrepreneurs have acquired technical, marketingand managerial skills, which have impacted on increased entrepreneurship development in Nigeria. Based on the findings, the study recommends that ITF should increase its efforts in promoting entrepreneurship education by offering more skill-oriented training programmes that will benefit Nigerian economic growth and development. In conclusion, the researchers submit that adequate entrepreneurial skills are necessary for effective and efficient running of entrepreneurial business in Nigeria.

Keywords:employment generation, skill acquisition, entrepreneurship development and economic growth.