Effect of Entrepreneurship Training on Entrepreneurial Behavior of Youth Graduates From Vocational Training Centres in Nyeri County

Abstract

Youth unemployment and under-employment is currently a substantial challenge across East Africa. While economies in the region have been growing at five to seven percent per annum, much of the potential workforce remains economically disenfranchised. This has two major knock-on effects: the first being the danger of political and social unrest as seen in Kenya’s post-election violence of 2008, and the second being constrained growth because a very small proportion of the population is engaged in economically productive activities. Opportunities for youth are expanding, but most youth lack the attitude, skills, and knowledge to take advantage of these opportunities. It is critical that vocational and tertiary institutions prepare students for the market place, business world and most especially for self-employment. Entrepreneurial transferable skills are highly valued in the entrepreneurship world and enhance an individual’s ability to earn a living. This study aimed at establishing effects of entrepreneurship training on entrepreneurial behavior of youth graduates from vocational training centers in Nyeri County. This study was anchored on Entrepreneurial Event Model and Theory of Planned Behavior models and helped to look into the impact of entrepreneurship training on the entrepreneurial behavior of youth graduates from vocational training centers in Nyeri County. Shapero and Sokols Entrepreneurial Event Model and the Ajzen’s theory of planned behavior have widely been applied in entrepreneurship research and study and have adequately assisted in forecasting entrepreneurship behavior. Descriptive research design was applied in this study and used as a basis for collecting data from respondents because it guaranteed an in-depth and complete description of the phenomenon and also minimizing of bias. Nine hundred and fifty was the target population, from which a sample of ninety five graduates, from vocational Training Centres in Nyeri County, were randomly selected for the study. Questionnaires with close ended questions were used to collect data ensuring that each and every respondent had the same questionnaires and with similar questions. Data that was collected, organized, cleaned-up, well coded and descriptive statistics employed to analyze on the basis standard deviation and mean scores using excel and SPSS version 25. The raw data that was analyzed was presented in tables and figures. In conclusion, the study’s multiple regression analysis revealed that entrepreneurship training has a significant and a positive effect on entrepreneurial behavior, implying that a unit increase in entrepreneurial training will lead to a proportionate unit increase in entrepreneurial behavior. Both attitude and knowledge had positive impact on entrepreneurial behavior while the coefficient of entrepreneurial skills had a negative but insignificant effect on entrepreneurial behavior. This findings therefore give a strong indication that entrepreneurship training does cause a positive influence towards entrepreneurial behavior of graduates from the vocational Training Centers in Nyeri County. Based on this findings, there is need to have an all-inclusive entrepreneurship training programs policy by the central and devolved government to give more youth entrepreneurial training , skills, exposure, especially women, to help improve their income potentials and their livelihood potential.