Impact of Skill Acquisition on Entrepreneurship Education as a Tool for Poverty Reduction among Youths in Etche Local Government Area of Rivers State

Abstract

The study examined the impact of skill acquisition on entrepreneurship education as a tool for 
poverty reduction among youths in Etche L.G.A of Rivers state. The area of study comprises of 
the five (5) clans (Okehi, Mba, Ozuzu, Umuselem and Igboh) in Etche Local Government Area 
of Rivers State. The study adopted descriptive survey design. The population consisted of all 
the graduate youths in Etche Local Government Area with a sample size of two hundred (200) 
respondents. Forty (40) respondents were drawn from each of the five (5) clans. A simple 
random sampling technique was used to select the respondents of this study. Three (3) research 
questions were formulated to guide the study. The instrument` used for data collection was a 
self-structured questionnaire titled “Impact of Skill Acquisition on Entrepreneurship Education 
as a Tool for Poverty Reduction among Youths in Etche Local Government Area of Rivers State 
(ISAEPRYE) on four (4) point rating scale. The study was validated by two expects from the 
Rivers State University and a reliability coefficient of 0.88 was obtained through a test – retest 
method. The data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation. The findings 
from this study showed that entrepreneurship education can empower the youths in Etche and 
give them a brighter future. It also reveals that the set objectives of entrepreneurship education 
can reduce poverty among youths in Etche. It further revealed that poverty reduction can be 
promoted through the provision of entrepreneurship education and poverty alleviation 
programmes. However, the study recommends that government should focus on employment 
creation through a functional entrepreneurship education. Emphasis should also be on the 
practical aspect of entrepreneurship education which will help to produce productive youths in 
the state labour force that will be self reliant or employable in an industry or company. The 
government and private sectors should encourage the graduates to be self employed by assisting 
them with soft loans and / or micro credit for a start. The quality of entrepreneurship education 
output must be improved if the expected outcome is to be achieved