Page 1 of 9
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/
ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 03 Issue 08
July 2017
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 384
Entrepreneurial Education and Skill Acquisition in Home Economics: A
Tool for Achieving Youth Empowerment in Nigeria.
Abanobi, C. H.
Department of Home Economics Federal College of Education (Technical), Asaba
abanobichidinma@gmail.com
Abstract
Unemployment and unemployable graduates
have become a serious challenge to
educators, educationist and the Nigerian
government. This is because the youth and
graduates from tertiary institutions are not
equipped with adequate skills that will
enable them exploit the natural resources
that abound in Nigeria. Therefore, this
paper focused on Entrepreneurship
education and skill acquisition in Home
Economics: A tool for achieving youth
empowerment in Nigeria. The paper
highlights entrepreneurship education as the
type of education which provides learners
with the basic knowledge, skills, attitude,
and ideas for self reliance. Home Economics
as discussed in the paper is entrepreneurial
and skill acquisition oriented with a
structure to equip students with relevant
skills and knowledge for gainful paid
employment or self-employment. The paper
advocates inculcation of these
entrepreneurial skills in unemployed youths
as this will help to promote youth
empowerment. Based on this, conclusions
and recommendations were made.
Keywords: Entrepreneurial Education,
Home Economics Education, Skill
Acquisition
Introduction
Nigeria is an important case study of youth
unemployment. The country has had a
pervasive unemployment for over a decade.
Though Nigeria is the most populated black
nation in Africa and eight in the world with
a population of over 160 million people, she
has a nominal Growth Domestic Product of
£207.11 billion (Segun, 2010). However, as
impressive as these statistics might be, the
Human Development Index in 2002 ranked
Nigeria as 148th out of 173 poorest. The
situation as observed by Segun (2010) has
reached alarming stage as more than 45
percent of the Nigeria population lives
below poverty line, while 67 percent are
extremely poor. The reality on ground which
helps to give a better explanation to poverty
in Nigeria is that which is seen every day on
the streets of both urban and rural areas.
There is a growing need for skills
acquisition in our developing country.
Unemployment and unemployable graduates
have become a serious challenge to
Page 2 of 9
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/
ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 03 Issue 08
July 2017
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 385
educators, educationist and the Nigerian
government. This is because the youth and
graduates from tertiary institutions are not
equipped with adequate skills that will
enable them exploit the natural resources
that abound in Nigeria. Adegbenjo (2012) is
of the view that this phenomenon constitutes
a waste of resources in the manpower
development of this nation. He further
stated that the type of education that is
needed for self employment and national
development has changed to include general
reasoning, creative problem solving and
behavioral skills as well as positive
cognitive styles as against the narrow
cognitive and occupational skills sought in
more directed work environment. This need
explains why the Nigerian government
stipulated in the national policy on
education, the acquisition of appropriate
skills, abilities and competencies; both
mental and physical, as a pre-requisite for
the individual to live in and contribute to the
development of the society (FRN, 2004).
The National Policy on Education (NPE,
2004) postulated the acquisition of
appropriate knowledge and skills
necessary for one to get a paid
employment in offices or to be self
employed. One of the national education
goals include acquisition of appropriate
skills and the development of mental,
physical and social abilities as well as
competencies as equipment for the
individual to live and contribute to the
development of his society. Based on this,
entrepreneurship education, therefore,
becomes imperative to help equip students
with employable skills needed for self
reliance, productive and functional life.
What is Entrepreneurship Education?
Entrepreneurship education as explained by
Onu (2006) is the type of education which
provides learners with the basic knowledge,
skills, attitude, and ideas for self reliance. In
other words, entrepreneurship education
through the inculcation of entrepreneurial
skills, should make recipients proficient in
career related areas and so launch them into
the business world with a view to
overcoming the problem of unemployment
and over-dependency on white-collar jobs.
In the same vein, Akunnaya (2012) defined
entrepreneurship skills as those skills that
will enable the individual to maximize the
resources around him within the limits of his
Page 3 of 9
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/
ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 03 Issue 08
July 2017
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 386
capabilities. If the ability of individuals to
utilize resources around them is tied to their
capacity, there is a need to build and
enhance capacity towards resource
utilization for job and wealth creation.
Therefore, entrepreneurship education is an
inevitable tool for this capacity building.
There is need to match resource utilization
with appropriate knowledge through
entrepreneurship education.
Entrepreneurship is the knowledge, skills
and mind set to create jobs by conceiving
and starting up new business. In support of
the above assertion, Gana (2001) stated that
entrepreneurship is the willingness and
ability of an individual to seek out
investment opportunities in an environment
and be able to establish and run an
enterprise successfully based on identified
opportunities. On the other hand, Ugiagbe
(2007) saw entrepreneurship as the process
of bringing together creative and innovative
ideas and coping with the management
and organization skills in order to combine
money and other resources to meet an
identified need and thereby create wealth.
This implies that entrepreneurship enhances
self-employment and skill acquisition in
creating something new, different from what
has existed.
The Economic Importance of
Entrepreneurial Education on Youth
Empowerment
The future of a new small business is never
certain. It will either succeed or fail. It is
therefore necessary to equip the potential
entrepreneur for success. The major thrust of
entrepreneurship education is to provide:
awareness of the opportunities and
risks of small business ownership
the skills and competencies
necessary for success in business
ownership.
as a concept, entrepreneurship
provides:
a new direction for Home Economics
as a vocational subject
career option through which the
teachers can challenge students who
have the sense of independence,
skills and self discipline necessary to
succeed in business ownership.
Since the government is unable to provide
jobs for all job seekers, entrepreneurship
education helps the economy by creating
