PROMOTING ENTREPRENEURSHIP SKILLS ACQUISITION AMONG SOCIAL STUDIES UNDERGRADUATES IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS (HEIs) IN DELTA STATE

Abstract

In contemporary times, entrepreneurship skills acquisition has become very important for human survival. Irrespective of the fact that white collar jobs to an extent are available, with entrepreneurship skills, human survival is assured. The best time to inculcate in individuals the entrepreneurship skill acquisition mentality is during their undergraduate years in higher education institutions(HEIs).Thisstudy investigated entrepreneurship skills acquisition among Social Studies undergraduates in higher education institutions (HEIs) in Delta State, Nigeria. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for thisstudy. The population of the study consists of all Social Studies undergraduatesin faculties of education in the sampled higher education institutions(HEIs) in Delta state. A simple random sampling technique was used to select 300 Social Studies undergraduates from four higher education institutions in Delta state. Two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. Data collected were analyzed using, percentages and mean to answer research questions, while, Chi-Square was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. A structured questionnaire containing 10 items, titled Promoting Entrepreneurship Skills Acquisition Questionnaire (PESAQ) was used for data collection. Findings revealed that there is significant influence of developing creativity thinking and entrepreneurship skills, and that there is a positive influence between creative innovation and entrepreneurship skills in Delta State's higher education institution. Based on the findings, the study recommends that there should be institutional collaborations between Social Studies undergraduates and other students, in order to brainstorm to create out new ideas and skills or to build on the existing ones. There should be a commitment to ideasfor practical application orimplementation by the Social Studies undergraduates, an awareness of creativity and innovation thinking should be cultivated and encouraged among social studies undergraduatesin particular and allstudents of higher education institutionsin Delta State in general.