SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES MANAGERS' RATING OF SKILLS N E E D E D B Y B U S I N E S S E D U C AT I O N G R A D U AT E S F O R ENTREPRENEURIAL SUCCESS IN ONDO AND EKITI STATES

This study was necessitated by the need to ascertain whether business education
graduates acquire adequate skills for entrepreneurial success by determining small and
medium enterprises managers' ratings of such skills needed by business education
graduates for entrepreneurial success in Ondo and Ekiti States. Two research questions
guided the study and two hypotheses were tested. The design of the study was descriptive
survey. The population for the study was 540 managers out of which 230 were sampled. A
structured questionnaire having five point rating scale which was duly validated by experts
in the field was used to collect data. Test re-test method was used to determine the
reliability of the instrument and application of Cronbach Alpha for the internal consistency
yielded an overall reliability coefficient of 0.75. Mean and standard deviation were used to
analyze data in respect of research questions and to determine the cohesiveness or
otherwise of respondents' ratings. The z-test was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level
of significance. Findings revealed that small and medium enterprises managers rated
problem-solving and marketing skills as the skills highly needed by business education
graduates for entrepreneurial success in the area. Based on these findings, it was
recommended among othersthat government and professional body such asAssociation of
Business Educators ofNigeria (ABEN)should float training programmes such as workshops,
seminars and conferences on the skills needed for entrepreneurial success to build and
enhance the capacity of business teachers, business education students, business
education graduates, entrepreneurs and general public at regularintervals.

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