Self-Employment Skills Possessed By Business Education Students Of Colleges Of Education For Sustainable Development In Cross River State, Nigeria

Self-Employment Skills Possessed By Business Education Students Of Colleges Of Education For Sustainable Development In Cross River State, Nigeria.

ABSTRACT

One of the goals of NCE business education programme is the acquisition of both physical and intellectual skills which will enable individuals to be self- reliant and useful members of the society.

In spite of available business opportunities, and conducive environment for businesses to thrive in Cross River state, Business Education graduates are yet to maximize these opportunities.

By using their creative abilities in establishing jobs for themselves and others instead, the business graduates go about the streets in search of jobs which are either few in supply or not available leading to high rate of unemployment, which has led to frustration and low self-esteem, and other negative vices amongst NCE graduates.

It was on this note the study was conducted to determine the self-employment skills possessed by business education students of Colleges of Education for sustainable development in Cross River State.

The study adopted a descriptive survey research design and was conducted in Federal College of Education Obudu and College of Education Akamkpa, Cross River State.

The population for the study was 745 made up of: 425 NCE final year students of Business Education from Federal College of Education Obudu, and 320 NCE final year students of Business Education from College of Education Akamkpa.

The sample of the study was 384 made up of 206 and 178 respondents from the Federal College of Education Obudu and College of Education Akamkpa respectively.

A structured questionnaire containing 63 items was used to elicit responses from respondents and generate data for the study.

The instrument was face-validated by three experts in the Department of Vocational Education was used to collect data from the respondents. The study made use of Cronbach Alpha reliability method Sto determine the internal consistency of the instrument.

The data collected for the study was analyzed using mean to answer the research questions and standard deviation to determine the closeness or otherwise of the responses from the mean, while t -test statistic was used to test the null hypothesis of no significant difference at the probability of 0.05 level of significance at relevant degree of freedom with the use of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).

INTRODUCTION

Business Education is an educational programme that prepares students for entry and advancement in jobs within business and to handle their business affairs as well as to function intelligently as consumers and citizens in a business economy.

Osuala (2004) defined business education as that aspect of vocational education, which emphasizes job competency, career preparation and work adjustments. It involves acquisition of special skills in business subject areas.

Njoku (2006) defined business education as an educational programme that equips individuals with functional and sustainable skills, knowledge, attitude and value that would enable the individuals operate in the environment such individuals find themselves.

Business education programme is offered at various levels of tertiary education: Universities, Polytechnics, and Colleges of Education.

College of Education according to the Nigerian Academy of Management Administration (2014) is an educational programme created to prepare individuals to be leaders and practitioners in education and related human service fields by expanding and deepening understanding of education as a fundamental human endeavour in helping society define and respond to its educational responsibilities and challenges.

At this level of education, the programme prepares the individual for a career in teaching, employment in industries, civil service and business establishment as well as self-employment (Ubong & Wokocha, 2009).

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