School-Industry Partnership in Business Education Programme for Students’ Entrepreneurial Skills Development in Rivers State Universities

Abstract

The study investigated the impact of School-Industry partnership in Business Education programme on students` entrepreneurial skills development in Rivers State Universities. Two research questions and two hypotheses were developed and formulated to guide the study. The design adopted for the study was descriptive research design. The population of the study comprised of 1,090 Three hundred level students of Business Education in Rivers State University and Ignatius Ajuru University of Education for the 2018/2019 academic session. The sample size of the study consisted of 327 students. The research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation while the hypotheses were tested with z-test at 0.05 level of significance. The research instrument used for garnering of data was titled: “School-Industry Partnership in Business Education Questionnaire”. The instrument was validated by three experts in Business Education and in the field of Measurement and Evaluation. The Cronbach Alpha procedure was used to obtain a reliability coefficient of 0.81 which showed that the instrument was reliable. It was discovered that, Students’ Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) in Business Education programme actually influence students’ entrepreneurial skills development in Rivers State Universities. Based on the findings, the following recommendations were made; the administrators of Business Education programme in Rivers State should intensify and strengthen the current Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) through proper supervision, enlightenment and Education of the students on the core imperatives and nitty-gritty of the programme.