ENTREPRENEURIAL COMPETENCIES REQUIRED BY NCE TECHNICAL ELECTRICAL/ELECTRONICS GRADUATES FOR ESTABLISHING SMALL SCALE BUSINESS IN PLATEAU STATE
ABSTRACT
This study was designed to determine entrepreneurial competencies required by NCE Technical Electrical/Electronics graduates for establishing small scale business in Plateau state. To achieve this objective, four research questions and four null hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. This figure was made up of 17 Electrical/Electronics lecturers in the two tertiary institutions offering NCE Technical in Plateau state and 74 registered Electrical/Electronics crasftmen of small scale business in Plateau state. The entire population was used for the study due to its manageable size. A 63- item questionnaire was the instrument developed by the researcher and used to collect the required data for the study. The instrument was validated by three expects and tested fore reliability using Cronbach’s alpha method. The data collected from the respondents were analyzed using mean and t-test statistic. Some major findings of the study were that seventeen out of eighteen managerial competencies for establishing small scale business (SSB) in plateau state, nineteen out of the twenty personality competencies for SSB thirteen financial and accounting competencies for establishing SSB, eleven marketing competencies were required for the establishment of SSB. The results of the study also showed that there was no significant difference in the mean rerosponses of Electrical/Electronics E/E lecturers and entrepreneurs of SSB on the managerial competencies required by E/E? NCE graduates for small-scale enterprises on items 1-16. The results also showed that there was no significant difference in the mean responses of E/E/ lecturers and the entrepreneurs of Small Scale Business SSB on the personality competencies. No significant difference in the mean responses of E/E lecturers and entrepreneurs of SSB on the accounting and financial competencies. No significant difference in the mean responses of E/E lecturers and the entrepreneurs of SSB on the marketing competencies. Based on the findings of the study, recommendations were made among which are National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) or various colleges of education and polytechnics should organize seminar and workshops for E/E lecturers on entrepreneurial competencies required by E/E NCE graduates for establishing SSB in Plateau state. Already employed E/E lecturers should be re-trained or sent for further study and entrepreneurial competencies for effective teaching and learning.