Business Education Graduates Employability Skills Needed for Entrepreneurship and Gainful Employment in Rivers State
Keywords:
Business Education, Employability, EntrepreneurshipAbstract
This paper examined business education graduates’ employability skills needed for entrepreneurship and gainful employment in Rivers State. Concepts such as business education, business education graduates, employability skills, entrepreneurship, and gainful employment were explained. The paper identified the employability skills required by business education graduates for entrepreneurship and gainful employment. Such skills include sales and marketing skill, financial prudence/know-how, motivational skill, communication skill, leadership skill, problem-solving skill, administrative skill, thinking skill, enterprising skill, risk-taking skill, time management skill, information skill, self-determination skill, capacity-building skill, ICT skill, among others. Collaboration, flexibility, and time management were identified as determinants of employability skills needed by business education graduates for entrepreneurship and gainful employment. Furthermore, poor funding of business education, lack of training facilities and equipment, political instability, inadequacies in the curriculum content of business education, poor implementation of the curriculum, and others were identified as constraints to business education graduates’ acquisition of employability skills needed for entrepreneurship and gainful employment in Rivers State. The paper concluded that employability skills are the acquisition and expression of work capacity and capability expected to be showcased in the labour market. Employers of labour expect certain employability skills from every prospective graduate for both salary placement and efficiency. The paper suggested among others that business education graduates should ensure that they possess competencies in order to keep up with the rapidly changing business environment as a result of the complexities of globalization in workplaces.
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