ASSESSMENT OF ENTREPRENEURIAL SKILLS FOR YOUTHS DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTH-SOUTH, NIGERIA

DR. IKELEGBE SAMUEL E.
DEPARTMENT OF OFFICE TECHNOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
DELTA STATE POLYTECHNIC, OGWASHI-UKU

Abstract

The paper adopted survey research design in order to determine entrepreneurial skills for youth’s development in South-South, Nigeria. The population of the study was 2,400 youths from six states in South-South region of Nigeria. A structured questionnaire titled “Entrepreneurial Skills for Youths Development Questionnaire (ESYDQ) was developed and used for the study. The questionnaire was structured on a 4-point likert rating scale of strongly agree (4) points, agree (3) points, disagree (2) points and strongly disagree (1) point. The instrument was validated by 3 research experts. The reliability of the instrument was determined through a pilot study involving 30 eligible youths from Imo State which was outside the study area while Cronbach Alpha SPSS  was used to determine the internal consistency of the instrument which yielded overall reliability co-efficient of 0.88. 2,060 copies of questionnaires were retrieved out of the 2,400 copies distributed which yielded 86% retrieval rate. The data collected from respondents were analyzed using mean and standard deviations while z-test was used to test the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. It was concluded that youths in south-south desired to be trained in entrepreneurial trade skills. It was recommended among others that, government should make deliberate policies that will encourage youths in the South-South region of Nigeria to embrace trade skills acquisition for self-development.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship skill acquisition, skill, youth.