APPRAISING THE POSSIBLE ROLES OF BUSINESS EDUCATION IN REDUCING THE RATE OF UNEMPLOYMENT IN NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

The study appraised the possible roles of business education in reducing the rate of unemployment rate in Nigeria, a study of business education department of University of Lagos. The study employed the survey design and the purposive sampling technique to select 55 students across all level. A well-constructed questionnaire, which was adjudged valid and reliable, was used for collection of data from the respondents. The data obtained through the administration of the questionnaires was also analyzed.

The results showed that there is positive and significant relationship between Business Education and reduction of unemployment in Nigeria; a positive and significant relationship exists between Pedagogical approach and reduction of unemployment in Nigeria; a positive and significant relationship exists between Student SIWES program and reduction of unemployment in Nigeria.

The study concludes that Business Education has a significant relationship on reduction of unemployment rate in Nigeria.        

Based on the findings of the study, the study recommended that; Business Education should be employed by all universities in Nigeria, both state, federal, and private universities, to ensure that the future of the students are safeguarded; NUC should create a department in the education ministry to monitor all universities curriculum, to ensure all higher institutions in Nigeria has Business Education as a course, which should be study for at least two semesters; Government should make the economy favourable, so students in universities can be encouraged to increase their passion on business; Government, university management should make students see reason why business is the way out of unemployment by organizing free seminars for the university students.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1    Background to the Study

1.2    Statement of the Problem

1.3    Purpose of the Study

1.4    Significance of the Study

1.5    Research Questions

1.6    Methodology

1.7    Scope of the Study

1.8   Definition of Operational Term

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0    Introduction

2.1.   Overview of the concept of business education 

2.2    Business Curriculum in Schools

2.3    Pedagogical approach to business education in schools

2.4   SIWES

2.5     Social cognitive career theory (SCCT)

2.6     Theory of pragmatism

2.7     Social learning theory of career choice (SLTCC)

CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

3.0   Preamble

3.1     Research Design

3.2     Population of the Study

3.3     Sample Size Determination

3.4    Sampling Technique

3.5     Method of Data Collection

3.6     Research Instrument

CHAPTER FOUR

DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

4.0    Introduction

4.1    Data Presentation

4.2    Data Analysis

4.3    Interpretation

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1    Summary of Findings

5.2   Conclusion

5.3    Recommendations

REFERENCES

APPENDIX: QUESTIONNAIRE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background to the Study

Education is the key to national development. This is because it unlocks the economic potentials of the people; empowers and equips individuals in society to participate in, and benefit from their national economy; facilitates economic development and provides the basis for transformation. Education is the essential tool for sustainability. The present global economic crises suggest that the entire world is in a war between financial/qualitative education and catastrophe (Aluwong, 2010).

Business education as part of the total educational system is the type of education that involves the acquisition of skills, ideas and management abilities necessary for job creation. A business owner or an entrepreneur promotes employment rather than seeking for an employment. Therefore, there is a need to embrace this type of education and provide all the necessary resources needed to make functional. Quality entrepreneurship education could be used as a tool for fighting the war against poverty and unemployment in Nigeria.

Education is said to be qualitative when the input such as students, teachers, finance, facilities and equipment and all these are converted through teaching and learning (theory and practical) and produce a desirable output. The output is better equipped to serve themselves and the society. The quality of input influences to a large extent the quality of output. In other words, the quality of the input of entrepreneurship education such as teachers, students and infrastructural facilities will influence greatly, the input of the output (Olorunmolu, 2010).

Unemployment in all form is one of the principal social and economic challenges of this decade in Africa and around the world. Long spells of unemployment can have serious long-term effects for individuals, such as reduced earnings and social exclusion. The rate of youth unemployment in Nigeria is high, even at the period of economic prosperity i.e. the oil boom of the 1970s (6.2%); 1980s (9.8%) and the 1990s (11.5%) to 21.1% in 2010 and 24% in 2011. (NPC, CBN, McKinsey analysis, 2012).

Like many developing countries in Africa, Nigeria is facing a serious unemployment problem coupled with a declining standard of living, increasing disparity between the urban and rural regions of the country, and inadequate social and physical infrastructures to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population (Ferej, 1994). The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) published that Nigeria unemployment rate stood at 33.3% in the fourth quarter of 2020, accounting for over 70 million unemployed working age people out of over 200 million Nigeria population. The scenario opens the country to a major crisis if not quickly addressed, and the higher the number of unemployed youths, the more likely a crisis could be stirred. There is the urgent need to take youths off the streets and put them to work in order to achieve peace and economic development in the country. Unemployment and poverty, especially among the youth, had remained one of the fundamental challenges threatening the economic development of Nigeria.

To provide a means of survival, many of the unemployed have turned to the informal sector to create small enterprises that range from trivial trading activities to reasonably successful production, manufacturing, and construction businesses. In general, a small enterprise may be defined as an enterprise having less than 20 employees. The small enterprise sector is composed of a range of enterprises including: self-employed artisans, microenterprises, cottage industries, and small enterprises in the formal business sector. These small enterprises may be engaged in trade, commerce, distribution, transport, construction, agribusiness, manufacturing, maintenance and repair, or other services. As a result of the trend toward the creation of small enterprises, the informal sector has grown to include approximately 60% of the labour force in Africa (International Labour Organization, 2006).

1.2       Statement of the Problem

There is a problem of mass employment and disequilibrium in the labour market in Nigeria, a rapidly growing number of graduates from the nation’s higher education institution competing for the shrinking number of available job spaces. It is very interesting to note that since the re-birth of democracy in Nigeria, more youths have access to education as well as higher education. Yet statistics still show that most of them still struggle to be absorbed into the labour market or even have intention to start their own businesses. Are there historical nuances associated with these trends or could open access to education be the underlying cause of this problem? Notwithstanding these critical questions the basis for this study stems from a general outcry regarding the alleged alarming rate of unemployed graduates in Nigeria and the pursuit of white color jobs, despite huge government investment in entrepreneurship education over the last decade and higher education institution playing a major role of creating an Business culture and mindest on undergraduate through business education the problem remains daunting.

For almost a decade now in Nigeria the curriculum of entrepreneurship education has remained un-changed. Worst still is that a single curriculum is used in training undergraduate of all discipline in entrepreneurship. To meet the global challenges the curriculum of tertiary institution need to be overhauled to take care of some inadequacies. Emaikwu (2011) argues that institutions of higher learning in Nigeria have concentrated more on theoretical and abstract instructional deliveries focusing only on cognitive development and consequently turning out non-Business skilled graduate into labour market. Curriculum experts have attested that there is the need to change from the hangover effects of theoretical liberal academic education which focused only on cognitive development to the utter neglect of entrepreneurship education that has its focus on practical occupational skills for self-employment and self-reliance. This of course is a problem that policy makers in Nigeria need to tackle if they are to enhance the entrepreneurship culture in the country and increase the Business inclination of undergraduate. The ultimate challenge therefore, is for the policy makers to encourage curriculum innovation aimed at producing graduates with the right mind set for starting business of their own and in the same vein motivating other to start-up business for economic reliance.

Teaching methods or pedagogical approach to delivering business education to undergraduates may increase Business inclination. The high rate of unemployment in Nigeria calls to question what knowledge or skill was actually imparted and through what teaching method was it imparted and why the decision to seek for a job instead of business startup? Results illustrate that there is a demand for new education set consisting of new material of self-improvement skill knowledge and experience. In Nigeria, the education model is based on the idea of “get –a-job”, whereas entrepreneurship education according to Liang (2011) should be built on information skills and mentally supporting the philosophy of creating jobs by creating innovative ideas. Business trainers can refer to general sources of teaching methods (Barkley, 2010) or consider assessment of categories of entrepreneurship courses and programmes. In Nigeria the confusing state of education has led to the recent call for an emergency to be declared in that sector. With graduates from Higher Education Institution in Nigeria being called “half baked” or “unbaked” it calls to question the methods used in delivering knowledge as well as the content and relevance of the knowledge delivered.

Internship or workplace learning is based on the notion that the experience a learner gains at work is considered as an important aspect in matters concerning learning. Therefore internship or work place learning induce a conscious effort to establish a situation where learning takes place in real life situation (Sumatti, 2012). While studies of student perception on internship have been conducted in Malaysia (Sumati, 2012) and in the UK (Halyoak, 2013) the study of their effect on Business inclination is a different thing. In Nigeria, polytechnic student irrespective of discipline must embark on 1 or 2 years industrial training.

1.3       Purpose of the Study

The major objective of this study is to evaluate the roles of business education in reducing the unemployment rate in Nigeria. It is hope that with this research work through its findings, the researcher would be able to:

1.      Identify the impact of the Business education on the reduction of unemployment in Nigeria.

2.      Identify the impact of pedagogical approach on the reduction of unemployment in Nigeria.

3.      Identify the impact of student internship programme on the reduction of unemployment in Nigeria.

1.4       Significance of the Study

The eventual significance of this study will be discussed under different functional headings appropriately:

1. The study will be of importance to education policy makers as it will further highlight the relevance of business education to reducing unemployment in the country.
2. The study will increase the frontiers of knowledge on using business education to solve national economic problems.
3. The study will be beneficial to the government on the need for greater integration of education to the economy to improve on self-employment.
4. The study will be a starting point for future researchers on the subject matter of business education as a tool for addressing graduate unemployability and reduction of unemployment.

1.5       Research Questions

1.      What is the impact of Business education on the reduction of unemployment in Nigeria?

2.       How does pedagogical approach impact on the reduction of unemployment in Nigeria?

3.      How does student SIWES program impact on the reduction of unemployment in Nigeria?

1.6    Methodology

Survey research method has been chosen for this study. This design is suitable because it will give room for obtaining information from the Business Education Department of University of Lagos. The procedures would be as follows:

Interviews: The respondents would be selected across students and staffs of the University of Lagos.

Questionnaires:  The population for this study comprise of students and staffs of University of Lagos. The total number of 55 students would be used as the population sample: 

1.7       Scope of the Study

The scope will focus on reviewing the reference of business educational courses offered by the University of Lagos. Efforts will be made to examine the contribution of their programmes to entrepreneurship development especially in Lagos State.

1.8   Definition of Operational Term

Education: Education is the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits.

Unemployment: Unemployment represents the number of people in the work force who want to work but do not have job. It is generally stated as a percentage and calculated by dividing the number of people who are unemployed by the total work force.

Pedagogical Approach: Pedagogical approach refers to the interactions between teachers, students, and the learning environment and the learning tasks.

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