Entrepreneurship Education; A Keyboard To A Successful Life By Professor Abiodun Amuda-Kannike SAN

Entrepreneurship education is that type of education whose aim is to provide students and scholars including the members of the public with the knowledge, and skills vis-a-vis motivation in order to encourage entrepreneurial success in a variety of circumstances.

This education could involve entrepreneurship from parents to children, masters to servants, skilled workers to artisans, and teachers to students which could be from kindergarten, primary, secondary and tertiary institutions.1 Furthermore, entrepreneurship education’s core mandate is geared toward equipping the youths with functional knowledge and skills which will build up their character, attitude, and vision in different areas of their productive life.

This will eventually push forward the development of the ecosystem for the benefit of mankind2 with the attendant effect of innovation and the creation of value for the production and services. This is different from the system of knowledge that was earlier the order of the day without the provision of much-needed skills and innovation but just a normal and formal system of education used for searching in most instances, white-collar jobs.

On the other hand, what then is entrepreneurship? Though entrepreneurship can be said to be a relative concept but that does not mean that Scholars, Authors, and Educationists did not define the terms. They did, but no consensus of opinion on the definition.

1. Entrepreneurship Education; see https://www.igi-global.com; Accessed through the internet on 9/9/2022 at 11pm
2. Entrepreneurship Education; see https://researchgate.net; Accessed through the internet on 9/9/2022 at 11:10pm
3. Entrepreneurship has been defined as the introduction of new economic activities which will give rise to a change in the marketplace or marketing environment. Therefore, it means, bringing into being new innovations.
4. Entrepreneurship is not just about innovation alone but also involves the ability to create products or services in a business environment with attendant financial risks most often connected to the success or failure of an enterprise.

BENIN REPUBLIC ENCOURAGEMENT OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Most universities and higher institutions in Benin Republic today are now encouraging entrepreneurship education. This was pursuant to the stimulation of entrepreneurship in Benin Republic by simplifying the legal regime as adopted by the members of the organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (OHADA).

The rules developed by member nations in this regard were aimed to encourage micro and small entrepreneurs to join the formal sector. It can therefore be said that Benin Republic was the first out of the seventeen member states who implemented the new status/rules as adopted by member nations as of December of the year 2010, about twelve (12) years now.

What the Benenoise government did first was to simplify the business registration process, it was also made free for registration, the micro and small enterprises benefited and jobs were created, it contributed to economic development and this was confirmed as far back as the year 2015 when the then Minister of Public Policy, Anthonin Dossou, at the official launching of the Benin entrepreneurship status of the members of the organization for the Harmonization.

As at 2014 when the government initiated the pilot scheme, a tailor named, Sebastion Gnonhoussou, whose tailoring shop is at Cotonou was given the opportunity to be a Coordinator/Trainer/Teacher by allowing the registration of his shop which was small as an “Entrepreneur”.  This man was trained in “accounting” “management” and finance.

The World Bank in a bid to encourage the government of Benin Republic supported her vigorously in order to implement the reforms for trade promotion and equal competition in the private sector of the economy since the year 2012. The member states enjoying these benefits are the seventeen states which are mostly Francophone countries in the sub-Sahara part of Africa as popularly referred to.

It was, therefore, in this regard that most of the higher institutions in Benin Republic including the one you are graduating from today opted for entrepreneurship education in order to support the high initiative of the government of Benin Republic and which the Ministry of education of Benin Republic advised most institutions to key into in order to enjoy complete educational training.

It will interest you to know that a lot of the higher institutions in Benin Republic today now run Degree courses on entrepreneurship apart from the fact that entrepreneurship as a course is now majorly compulsory for all students of higher institutions.

THE GROWTH OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION IN NIGERIA

From the historical antecedents of the history of policies relating to education, industry, employment, and labour in Nigeria can be traced down to the colonial period. It was said that our educational institutions as they were, continued to produce white-collar employment seekers who do not have the requisite professional or entrepreneurial skills expected in the education system which can be called “total education”. There exist no doubt that before now, entrepreneurship education was completely lacking in our educational system, just as it was in most African countries including Benin Republic.

Among other things, entrepreneurship education in Nigeria seeks to provide the students, especially in tertiary institutions with skills, knowledge, and motivation with a view to supporting entrepreneurial growth in every sector or business activity/service.

As of today in Nigeria just as it is ongoing in the Benin Republic, entrepreneurship education is offered at all stages of educational institutions commencing from primary to secondary schools including up to the tertiary institutions. It has been referred to as a life learning process which is essential to assist the competitive nature of the Knowledge economy.

THE REASONS WHY EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS SHOULD TEACH ENTREPRENEURSHIP

As society is changing toward innovations and modernization, educational institutions cannot afford to remain behind because the students who are graduating must fit into society. The educational institutions must graduate, the doers, the makers, and the cutting-edge thinkers, Florina and Sabrina Truong referred to entrepreneurship as being required all over the world.

The fact remains that entrepreneurship education serves benefits as it teaches the students to think outside the box and get interested in unconventional talents and skills. This ultimately gives room for social justice, stimulation of the economy, confidence and so many opportunities.

There was a story of a young man who was involved in drugs and was sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment. He was told inside the prison that he is an entrepreneur. He was trained and became interested. some years later, he became the founder and Executive Director of “The Start Centre for Entrepreneurship”.

Furthermore, the importance of offering entrepreneurship courses,s especially at tertiary institutions is the fact that it prepares the students to be self-reliant after graduation. The trend all over the world today is that jobs are no longer guaranteed. There is a hyper rise in the rate of unemployment and underemployment. Also, technology itself has come to threaten the future of the “employment/job space”. Therefore, the use of information technology in all professional callings is no longer news but reality. Even the legal profession is not left out and so, you cannot say because you are a lawyer or a law student, you don’t need entrepreneurship.

As a result of entrepreneurship education, a student becomes versatile because the acquisition of entrepreneurship education automatically broadened his knowledge and skills culminating in versatility. The intention is to make sure that students are not limited to the acquisition of skills and innovations in only the area of study. A student should be able to work in different areas of productive activities and be useful to both society and himself.

There also exists the opportunity of acquiring managerial skills as it is always the case that the major reason for the failure of most businesses is the lack of managerial competence by the owners of businesses and workers. The fact that the students might work in private or public sectors of the economy even shows the necessity for having and imbibing the knowledge of managerial skills and entrepreneurial competence.

Valentine Grecu and Calin Denes, stated and we agreed with them that; “Entrepreneurship education should be seen from a university-wide perspective and the increasing interest for this topic in a broader set of fields. Combined with the enthusiasm of alumni from all fields to introduce a real-world dimension to their home, schools encourage the implementation of the entrepreneurial mindset throughout the whole campus. The gap between real-life situations and classroom theories and concepts can be bridged with the help of entrepreneurship education for students with different specialization fields. Bringing students from non-business fields closer to the business school is the approach of some institutions that aim to educate students in an entrepreneurship classroom characterized by diversity.

A different approach to university-wide entrepreneurship education consists of presenting lessons of entrepreneurship from within a specific field, thus giving a message relevant to the field itself”

The above quotation shows the importance of entrepreneurship education as a world to the students in general and shows that each institution has the advantage of making sure that students do not learn their course of study without the advantage of being an entrepreneur in diverse areas different from their professional course of study/studies.

MODEL OF THE ENTREPRENEURIAL UNIVERSITY

The model presents also the steps that need to be followed in order to implement the entrepreneurial mindset across the campus for achieving the radiant model of an entrepreneurial university. It all starts with the commitment of the leadership (university administrators). The following steps are creating structures that will coordinate and monitor the implementation of the measures needed to transform the university into an entrepreneurial one. Raising awareness of the importance of entrepreneurship, both for the economy and for the future of the university is an ongoing process and it should target students, alumni, faculty, administrative staff, and the whole community and business environment.

Engaging the employees in this process is a difficult task, but it is essential that everyone understands the short and long-term necessity of commitment to entrepreneurship education. The mechanism of execution refers to offering all the stakeholders the necessary means to implement the plan to move forward toward a university-wide approach to entrepreneurship.

Regardless of the approach, it is widely recognized that it is increasingly necessary for students to have transversal skills which will increase their employability. Entrepreneurial education equips students with abilities that increase their employment potential and include: the abilities to solve problems, develop social interaction, abilities to find information, and handle it for decision making, planning, communication and presentation skills, etc. Entrepreneurial education and training provide individuals with the ability to recognize commercial opportunities, self-esteem, knowledge, and skills to act on them.

THE VALUE OF ENTERPRISE AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION

Enterprise and entrepreneurship education has never been more important. Growing youth populations, coupled with rising youth unemployment in many countries, are putting greater emphasis on job creation and enterprising behaviour within employment. Technological developments are reshaping our workplaces and changing how businesses are operated, while the global nature of business means more young people will have jobs crossing different continents and sectors. It is therefore important we equip future generations with the skills and mindsets they need to navigate a world of work we can’t yet envisage.

PREPARING LEARNERS FOR THE FUTURE

The future employability of young people will depend heavily on how teaching and learning react to these changing needs. Learners will need to be innovative, adaptive, resilient, and flexible to navigate an ever-evolving labour market.

In recent years there has been significant growth in enterprise education in the UK and other countries as a result of shifts in national education policies. Embedding entrepreneurship education in technical and vocational education and training (TVET) can be an important vehicle for ensuring learners are prepared for life beyond their educational institutions.

Enterprising mindsets coupled with the skills gained through TVET could be the perfect recipe to support the future employability of learners. Entrepreneurship education will make young people more employable and more “intrapreneurial” in their work within existing organizations, across the social, public, and private sectors.

THE BENEFITS OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION

As securing and creating employment becomes a key priority for learners and governments in the foreseeable future, the growth of economies around the world will be supported by entrepreneurial thinking and enterprise from the next generation.

According to evidence from the European Commission, entrepreneurship education can positively impact local labour markets and economies.

Investing in entrepreneurship education is one of the highest return investments in Europe, with the same research showing that students who receive enterprise education are three to six times more likely to start a business in the future.

Learners are at the core of teaching, and entrepreneurship education can equip them with an entrepreneurial mindset, which can lead to greater involvement and engagement across core studies. Learning can be more enjoyable when embedded in real-life examples and when individuals are given the opportunity to take ownership of their own success.

Through entrepreneurship activities, learners can gain key entrepreneurial skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, risk-taking, and teamwork. Entrepreneurship can offer alternative pathways for young people, improving their skills, employability, and life chances, while supporting wider economic and social development.

EMBEDDING ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION

Effective entrepreneurship education relies on both teachers and the culture of teaching institutions. Teachers need a broad range of competencies to successfully embed entrepreneurial education within the curriculum, and this can be supported by a school environment where risk is encouraged and where employment as an outcome of learning is a priority. Entrepreneurship teaching doesn’t provide answers but supports learners to identify the right questions. It should look to push boundaries, encourage learners to think creatively, and be confident enough in their own ability to take the risks necessary to succeed. Creative environments must also support failure. Mistakes can often prove to be the greatest lessons.

The future is dependent on the next generations, and high-quality teaching that incorporates entrepreneurship will be an essential part of their success. The active minds of tomorrow are reliant on the guidance and support of the teachers today, who will open the world of possibilities up to them.

ENTREPRENEURIAL EDUCATION HAS FOUR MAIN BENEFITS FOR A STUDENT.

It opens up the possibility of becoming an entrepreneur as a viable career choice. Surprisingly, in many universities the majority of students do not get the appropriate exposure that even allows them to consider this; and certainly, not sufficient information to help them evaluate their propensity to undertake such a career.

The competencies, attitude, and experience increase the immediate employability of that student. Corporates and other graduate employers are looking beyond the academic results to select employees who might eventually become leaders of their organizations. A quote from the WEF report on “What skills do employers most value from graduates” highlights this point: “The kinds of skills cultivated through social entrepreneurship are linked to the soft skills that graduate employers have repeatedly told us they prize, but which they believe graduates lack. Chief among these are creativity, resourcefulness, team-working, innovation, resilience, IT skills, and innovation.”

There has been a rise in social and environmental consciousness among students in the last decade. Entrepreneurship, especially social entrepreneurship is a potential path to allowing these students to work in these areas where they feel they are able to make a more direct impact on these areas of concern.

The skills developed in obtaining an entrepreneurial mindset track closely many of the skills required in the “21st-century graduate” which are essential to becoming a useful global citizen who is able to guide their own destiny through an uncertain future.

MAIN BENEFITS OF OFFERING ENTREPRENEURIAL EDUCATION TO THE UNIVERSITY

• It helps in the overall positioning of the university when communicating to potential students, parents, and the world. Although entrepreneurship is only recently beginning to appear on the university ranking tables, more and more applicants are beginning to consider this as a factor in their choice of institution.
• It facilitates links with corporates and public sector organizations. The private sector is looking more and more to universities as a source of innovation as well as employees, and in return, universities are seeking support in terms of funding and sponsorships. Entrepreneurial education can be a natural bridge between the two.
• It encourages the commercialization of research – and as such potential future income streams. Technology Transfer Offices and Centres of Entrepreneurship/ Innovation have the capacity to become strong sources of income for universities.
• It may make the university itself more entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial in its thinking and approach. The European Commission’s HEInnovate initiative discusses the importance of this as well as offers an assessment tool to measure how entrepreneurial is your institution. The opportunity of creating “entrepreneurial academics” beyond teaching ability is in the way they look at the world and the potential impact on developing an entrepreneurial university.

MAIN BENEFITS FOR THE COMMUNITY AND ECONOMY

“Governments across the world are looking to technology innovation as a driver for national economic growth, and to universities as the incubators of this national capacity. Universities operating within established technology-driven innovation hubs, such as Silicon Valley and Kendall Square in the US, offer robust models for success within these environments. However, an increasing number of universities located within more challenging environments are establishing strong entrepreneurship and innovation profiles and reputations, some of whom will undoubtedly become future national and international leaders both in Nigeria and Benin Republic.”

THE CHALLENGES OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION

Both in the Benin Republic and Nigeria including across the world, while appreciating the benefits which accrues generally as a result of entrepreneurship education, a critical assessment of the bottle-necks drawing back the progress so far recorded should be done here, for the world to see, appreciate and fashion out ways to solve same in order to really reap the benefits of entrepreneurship education. The challenges affecting entrepreneurship education are as follows;

I. CHANGES IN POLITICAL LEADERSHIP AND AGENDA

Entrepreneurship education encouragement or discouragement usually lies in the hands of political leadership and their agenda.

Once there are political constant changes in political leadership or simply put country leadership, the new government may not be interested in encouraging entrepreneurship education or may not encourage it properly.23 There could be changes in leadership and there are likely to be changed from time to time but there should be continuity in lofty programs such as these ones.

II. POOR ACCESS TO VOCATIONAL SKILLS

Entrepreneurship education requires the provision of vocational skills. Where there are not many or poor vocational skills, the tendency is for the essence of entrepreneurship education to be defeated or badly affected. Most institutions make provisions for vocational skills but some institutions are still found wanting in this regard. This is a serious threat to the development of entrepreneurship education.24

III. ABSENCE OF REGULATORY MECHANISMS

There have been no or fewer regulatory mechanisms for entrepreneurship education. It is necessary to have a lot of regulatory frameworks to be put in place in order to encourage entrepreneurship education. This is one of the serious bottlenecks to the sustainability of entrepreneurship educational development. There is no way, there can be any development if a particular sector of the economy is not regulated or inadequately regulated. There is a tendency for the players of the such sector to behave anyhow they like without considering the effect on such sector of the economy.

IV. PROBLEM OF CAPITAL

Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurship education involves a capital injection into its development and as of now, there is an economic meltdown all over the world. The covid-19 epidemic affected capital outflows and inflows.26 The issue of access to capital is one of the biggest challenges in the development of entrepreneurship education. Without adequate capital, a lot of activities cannot take place. This is a serious challenge including the fact that some entrepreneurship activities are capital-intensive and only a few persons or few companies, corporations, governments, and multinationals can participate in them.

V. INSECURITY

There now exist global insecurity. There is national and domestic insecurity. Whatever type of insecurities, we come across, the important thing is that entrepreneurship education does not thrive under insecurity. It has a heavier effect on entrepreneurship education to the extent that it can ruin the economy of a country.28

It has often been said that where there exists adequate security, there is likelihood of good governance, democracy, reduction in social vices, and reduction in illegality and insecurity.

CONCLUSION AND GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS

The demand for excellent entrepreneurship education and a quality one has continued to date. What we have as benefits of entrepreneurship education are being overshadowed now by the challenges in such a way that the gains and benefits of this lofty program are being eaten up by the challenges bedeviling the said entrepreneurship education.

To make the Benin Republic and Nigerian entrepreneurship education satisfy the aspirations of the 21st Century, the following recommendations become necessary;

1. Every university and tertiary institution must award two certificates to graduating students, the first one should be on entrepreneurship, while the second one should be the degree the student had graduated in during the course of his or her study. This will certainly encourage entrepreneurship education.
2. Any university and tertiary institution which fails to incorporate entrepreneurship education as part of the curriculum with respect to all the courses studied by the students should be closed down until they comply with the directive along this line.
3. The government should provide adequate incentives for entrepreneurship education in order to reap the major benefits or avoid a situation where the graduating students are interested in white-collar jobs rather than entrepreneurship where they can even be employers of labour themselves.
4. There should be proper and adequate regulatory mechanisms that will regulate the practice of entrepreneurship education. Where there exist no regulations, entrepreneurship education will just be practiced for the fun of it, without focus, dexterity, and optimism.

5. The whole world, Africa, and most of the citizens of Benin Republic and Nigeria generally required adequate security in order to excel in entrepreneurship education. No business can survive nor thrive in a situation of war, banditry, kidnapping, and general insecurity.
6. There should be partnerships by various universities with the business outfits outside where the students can serve as trainees.
7. The government especially the National Assembly should make Law to recognize “Nano Entrepreneurship” in Nigeria and Benin Republic.30 We have taken our time to talk about this issue, yet we were ignored by the government most especially the National Assembly. We implore you all to put pressure on the government that the bill in relation to Nano Entrepreneurship is passed and becomes part of our laws.

Now to our graduates, I congratulate you and your parents on the successful completion of your various courses of study. You are indeed a worthy ambassador of this great university, a worthy ambassador of the Republic of Benin, and also a worthy ambassador of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

A university today must not only prepare its graduate to be employable in various aspects of life but must prepare its graduates as employers of labor through entrepreneurship education.

As of today, because of what entrepreneurship education has impacted on you, while in the university, I am sure that you gained the followings;

1. Creativity
2. Critical thinking
3. Problem-solving

4. Communication
5. Reasonable-risk taking
6. Self-motivation
7. Financial responsibility
8. Teamwork (Team player)

Once more to our graduating students, most of the important things in this world have been accomplished by people who kept on trying, when there seemed to be no hope at all. Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time. You are educated. Your certification is your degree. You may think of it as a ticket to the good life. Let me ask you to think of an alternative. Think of it as your ticket to change the world. In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins: cash and experience. Take the experience first, the cash will come later. He who is not courageous to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.

Real courage is holding on to a still voice in your head that says, “I must keep going” it’s that voice that says nothing is a failure if it is not final. That voice that says to you, “Get out of bed. Keep going. I will not quit”. As you move into the World, please remember to make an impact not only on your life but on the entire world. Once more congratulations.