Entrepreneurship Education as an Impetus to Entrepreneurial Competence and Entrepreneurial Intentions among Polytechnic Students: A Quantitative Approach

The study examined the extent to which entrepreneurship education influence entrepreneurial competence and entrepreneurial intentions among the students with specific reference to the Osun State Polytechnic, Iree, Nigeria. Purposive random sampling technique was used to select 85 final year students from all the three Departments (Business Administration and Management, Marketing and Purchasing and supply) in the Faculty of Management Studies. The questionnaire was employed to collect data and scales measuring entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial competence, and entrepreneurial intentions. Mean, chi-square, Pearson Moment correlation and ordinary least square (OLS) method of estimation were used to analyse the data. The result revealed that entrepreneurship education has a significant effect on entrepreneurial competence and entrepreneurial intentions among students. This implies that entrepreneurship education is an antidote to poverty, insecurity, unemployment and hunger that have been the order of the day in Nigeria. Consequently, all stakeholders in the education industry should endeavour to ensure that entrepreneurship education is properly funded and also Federal government should establish an entrepreneurial financial institution that will provide financial assistance and advisory services to graduates and non-graduates that pass through entrepreneurship education and have viable feasibility study and zeal of establishing entrepreneurial ventures.