Challenges to entrepreneurship skills development inhibiting self reliance in automobile mechanics occupations in Nigeria.

Abstract

This study determined the challenges to entrepreneurship skills development inhibiting self reliance in automobile mechanics occupations in Nigeria. Two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The instrument for data collection was a 24 items questionnaire with 4 point scale on a population of 125 respondents sampled from Kaduna State; Niger State and Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The questionnaire was validated by three experts chosen among automobile practitioners and automobile technology lecturers in the study areas and the corrected validated instrument pilot tested outside the study area. The reliability of the piloted instrument was established to be 0.84 using Cronbach Alfa statistic. The research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation on a 4-point scale. While z-test was used to test the null hypotheses at .05 level of significance. Findings of the study revealed that: the challenges to entrepreneurship skills development inhibiting self reliance in automobile mechanics occupations includes among others : neglect and lukewarm attitude towards entrepreneurial skills acquisition, over reliance on civil service and white collar jobs, difficulties in translating business ideas to business ventures, lack of adequate information for entrepreneurial development, lack of regular periodic entrepreneurial training as well as poor funding of entrepreneurial programmes. The study also identified possible modalities for acquisition of entrepreneurship skills for self reliance in automobile mechanics occupations in Nigeria. There is no significant difference in the mean responses of automobile technology teachers and automobile practitioners on the challenges to entrepreneurship skills development inhibiting self reliance in automobile mechanics occupations in Nigeria. The study recommended among others that there is need to exploit the challenges to entrepreneurship skills development inhibiting self reliance in automobile mechanics occupations in Nigeria, and also recommended the establishment of entrepreneurship development center to provide lifelong enterprise-based training opportunities required for self reliance in automobile occupations in Nigeria.