The Effect Of Entrepreneurship Education In Developing Entrepreneurial Intentions Among Selected University Students In Kenya

Abstract

Entrepreneurship in many countries play an important role. It is a huge contributor to the economic growth of Kenya whereby many jobs have been created. Several factors affect entrepreneurship and this include; politics, gender, technology, access to funds, personal factors, poor entrepreneurial skills, education and much more. Education was seen as a tool to resolve most of the mentioned issues and hence in 1988, Kenya’s education systems introduced entrepreneurship in their education programs. This begun entrepreneurial education phenomenon. Entrepreneurial Education combines essential skills already learned, studied and approved by established entrepreneurs over the years. Studies have shown that entrepreneurial education is critical to the growth and survival of enterprises. The study therefore was aimed at establishing the influence of entrepreneurial education in developing entrepreneurial intentions among university students in Kenya. Descriptive research design was used to study the research problem. The target population of this study comprised 74 Universities teaching entrepreneurship in Kenya. The study took a sample 3 Universities 27 students in total using stratified sampling. Collecting of data was through use of questionnaires. The study used descriptive techniques to analyze data. Results obtained show that the students had a clear understanding on the concept of entrepreneurship. Findings indicated that respondents had highest expectations of improving their networking skills, communication skills, creativity, and negotiation skills and even start a business. Those with already existing businesses sought to improve the performance of their business through financial management, business planning and much more. The findings of the study indicated that most students had actually achieved this, some even before completion of the course. Most of them indicated they had achieved their intended goals