Entrepreneurial Intervention Among Undergraduates: Do Entrepreneurship Education and Environmental Conditioning Count?

Abstract

Graduate unemployment is an issue that affects individuals, families, government and other stakeholders with little solution in sight. While the Nigerian government has introduced entrepreneurship education in all tertiary institutions, research on predictors of entrepreneurial interventions has produced varied results. Therefore, this study examines the predictive roles of entrepreneurship education and environmental conditioning on entrepreneurial intervention among undergraduates in selected universities in Rivers State. Cross-sectional survey design was adopted while purposive sampling technique was used to select four tertiary institutions in Rivers State. Data were conveniently collected from 230 participants using validated questionnaires and analyzed using multiple regression and independent samples t-test to test two hypotheses which were accepted at p <.001 level of significance. The result reveals that environmental studies and environmental conditioning jointly predicted entrepreneurial intervention among study participants, R2 =. 477, F (2, 227) = 54.25, p < 0.001. Furthermore, the results indicate that entrepreneurship education (β =.438, t = 4.84, p <.001) and environmental conditioning (β = .401, t = 4.54, p < .001) independently predicted entrepreneurial intervention among study participants. The study concludes that entrepreneurship education and environmental conditioning are robust predictors of entrepreneurial intervention among study participants. The study recommends that the university and the government agencies should make entrepreneurship education more meaningful and practical oriented to motivate undergraduates to seek self-employment after graduation.