ENTREPRENEURIAL EDUCATION AND ITS EFFECT ON NEW BUSINESS VENTURES: INSIGHTS FROM EBONYI STATE UNIVERSITY (2014–2020)

This study is on entrepreneurship education and new business creation among Ebonyi State University Graduates (2014-2020). 2014 was used as the base year because it was in 2014 that the University started offering entrepreneurship courses with emphasis on the development of entrepreneurship competencies, acquisition of entrepreneurship skills and development of entrepreneurship attitude. Specific objectives of the study were to determine the degree to which development of entrepreneurship competencies, entrepreneurship skills, and improvement of entrepreneurship attitude affect new business creation among Ebonyi State University Graduates. It was survey research that used a sample size of 392 from a population of 21,120. Using regression model to analyze data, it was found that development of Entrepreneurship competencies had significant positive (0.105) effect on new business creation; Entrepreneurship Skills had significant positive (0.346) effect on new business creation; and entrepreneurship attitude had significant positive (0.587) effect on new business creation among EBSU graduates. The implication of the study is that development of entrepreneurship competencies significantly affects creation of new businesses. The study recommends increase in duration and content of entrepreneurship education to ensure a link between the graduates and the business world.