An Assessment of Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy Of Nigerian Technical College Students (NTCS)

Abstract

In Nigeria, the establishment of technical and vocational colleges are part of government’s strategies for reducing unemployment among other goals. However, observations showed that instead of creating new ventures, graduates of Nigerian technical colleges tend to join the labor market waiting and hoping for jobs that are not available. Our literature review showed that this may be due to lack or low level of entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE). This study therefore appraised ESE of 450 students of selected 9 technical colleges in South-western Nigeria and assessed the effect of ESE on entrepreneurial intention.  We used ESE as a multi-dimensional construct based on the definition of Mueller and Goic (2003). Our findings showed that based on statistical means, the students possessed an average level of ESE but when considered as individuals, many of them possessed high and very high levels of ESE. This is a potential that could be harnessed, in the presence of facilitating environment, for new venture creation and by implication, self-employment. Further, the results of this study suggest that there is no relationship between ESE and entrepreneurial intention (EI). This may be due to the fact that the effect of constraining forces in the business environment is greater and thereby erodes the effect of ESE on EI. Future programmatic interventions should take this insight into cognizance.