Entrepreneurship Skills Needed by Nigerian Tertiary Institution Students and Graduates for Global Relevance

The study examined entrepreneurship skills needed by students/graduates for global relevance. The survey research design was chosen for the study. The population of the study comprises Business Education lecturers and students from three polytechnics, four Colleges of Education and Delta State University, Abraka, all in Delta State. A sample of 110 was randomly selected comprising 53 lecturers and 57 students. Data collection was via the questionnaire which was validated by three Business Education lectures from Delta State Polytechnic Ozoro, College of Education, Agbor and Delta State University, Abraka, all in Delta State, Nigeria. In analyzing data, mean and standard deviation were used for research questions, while independent samples t-test was used to test hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that entrepreneurship skills needed by students/graduates of tertiary institutions include trade show planning, promotion and execution. Others include skills for processing inventories, gross and net profit as well as keeping debt ledgers. The findings also specified ICT skills needed by students/graduates to include skills for accessing contra vision electronic software, deleting and merging mails, keying in data, copying, pasting and inserting in appropriate locations. Also revealed in the findings are significant difference between entrepreneurship and ICT skills essential for students and those essential for graduates. On the basis of these findings, it was recommended that some of these skills should be integrated into the tertiary education curriculum so that undergraduate students could be exposed to them as early as possible.


Introduction
The Federal Government of Nigeria formulated the National Policy on Education 1981 and has revised it several times leading generally to the current 6 th edition of 2013. The policy has been adjudged by experts in education to be adequate. However, inadequate political will to implement the policy has been the bane of the Nigerian educational system. Overtime, there has been a vacuum between formulated policies and their implementation. Policies are made and changed at will and programmes are recklessly abandoned (Ogonor, 2019).
The Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP) is a significant strategy for developing human resources and growth in any nation. Entrepreneurship Education is a programme of study that has to do with imparting skills on individuals, on how to make a business successful. According to Onyeanwuna and Ogona (2019), the main goal of the Entrepreneurship Development Programme is to provide knowledge of business to people having no such knowledge, thereby making them successful entrepreneurs. This philosophy is anchored on the presumption that entrepreneurs are not only born but can be identified, trained and created (Igbongidi, 2015).
An entrepreneur is a business proprietor who provides the required capital and bears the risk involved in the business. The entrepreneur's activities in the business organization draw from the French etymology "entrepredre" which means undertaking or taking action.  (Honolulu, 1997). Table 1 shows the list of characteristics and traits which an entrepreneur should possess in order to establish and develop a successful owned business. The traits are inter-related, which means that a person who is self-confident will be willing to take risk, have a foresight, be knowledgeable about the business and become a leader. There are a lot of evidence to show that entrepreneurship traits and characteristics can be acquired through various ways such as model, processes, case studies and other structured learning (Okoro and Ofishe, 2012).

Entrepreneurship Skills
Entrepreneurship skills are indispensable for the economic survival of both students and graduates. According to Mgbonyebi and Olaniyi (2019), Educating people on the need for making their own business decisions, acquiring some basic vocational skills and using them with the knowledge gained in school is the bedrock of economic empowerment and development which is urgently needed. Information and communication technology which is one of the entrepreneurship skills is a veritable and essential tool in Entrepreneurship education all over the world. Okereke and Okoroafor (2011) assert that entrepreneurship skills have been acknowledged worldwide as the pertinent and rewarding tools for job creation, self-employment and economic survival of any nation.
imperative that students, youths and graduates be equipped with these skills to elevate them from the present condition of indigence and joblessness.

Entrepreneurship Skills Needed by Students and Graduates for Global Relevance
According to Oluwuo (2019), Global Relevance means alignment in time with global demands. With globalization, no country is able to exist alone. Every country has to play its part to be relevant to the demands of the global economy. Ogonor (2019) maintains that global relevance involves the production of goods and rendering of services that meet international standards. This means that goods and services produced in a particular nation are of a comparative value at the international level. Thus, to compete favourably, entrepreneurship education in Nigeria must aim at global relevance. It is in this vein that entrepreneurship skills needed by students and graduates for global relevance are discussed as follows: Accounting Skills: Accounting skills is an area of study essential for equipping recipients with the required knowledge, attitude and competency for accurate financial record keeping, occupational pursuit and other economic and organizational activities. This includes skills that enable assessment, documentation and communication of relevant economic reports to interested individuals and business concerns.
This is an area that cannot be downplayed owing to the fact that growth and stability of any business organization depends largely on adequate record keeping of its transactions. Umunnah (1992) and Ahukannah, Ndinechi and Anukwe (1989) opine that the roles of accounting skills in the operation of business enterprises include documentation and analysis of financial data, preparation of accounting statements and communication of these financial reports to employers.
Some of the accounting and financial skills needed are competence in keeping and updating accounts, competence in costing, competence in preparation and interpretation of financial statements, knowledge of sources of funds, knowledge of levies, taxes and regulation at federal, state and local government levels, knowledge of procedures for granting loan from financial houses, knowledge of accounts receivables and accounts payable, ability to process inventories, knowledge of preparation of ledgers and extraction of trial balance, ability to prepare daily cash reports, knowledge of bank reconciliation statements, competence in keeping sales and purchases records, ability to keep debtors ledgers, competence in preparing final accounts, profit and loss accounts and the balance sheet, competence in calculation of depreciation, ability to avoid extraneous expenditures and to prepare simple budget (Akpotowho and Amahi 2006;Salome 2012).
Marketing Skills: Okpan (2006) identified marketing skills which include ability to capture customers' attention and retain their patronage, ability to promote and market the organization's products, ability to study the market forces of demand and supply, ability to possess the demeanour for effective salesmanship and so on. Marketing cuts across all frontiers if effective survival is to take place in the economy. Zimmerer, Scarborough and Wilson (2009) define marketing as the activities involved in creating as well as delivering goods and services to customers. The secret to effective marketing is to be acquainted with the needs, wants and demands of your target customers and be able to act before your competitors offer them products and services that satisfy those needs. It also involves providing convenient and valuable customers' services that make you to enjoy their patronage.
Unfortunately, this has been elusive in small businesses because of the wide gap that exists between sound marketing principles and actual marketing practices. The marketing function in a business cuts across the whole organization including all aspects of the company's operation from production and finance to purchasing and hiring as well as the company's ultimate success.
As competition for customers become intensified, business owners must be cognizant of the urgent need to develop creative marketing strategies, knowing full well that the survival and success of the enterprise depends on it. An effective marketing campaign does not require huge spending on the part of the business organization.
What is needed is ingenuity, creativity and understanding of customers' buying habits. Some of the marketing skills outlined are: marketing plan evaluation and development, printing advertising programs, marketing deliverable, copy, layout and execution, direct mail, planning, testing, development and execution, trade show planning, promotion and execution, website development, public relations, marketing testing, video and multimedia, new product launches, start-ups and sales (Business Marketing Institute, 2013). (2008) identified some management skills such as ability to plan, organize and manage small scale businesses, ability to maintain business ethics, ability to utilize market information, develop skills for effective supervision and co-ordination as well as ability to apply integrating skills. Management skills are prerequisite for effective job performance in organizations amongst employers and employees. Management skills are competencies obtained to enhance the process of running, directing or administering an organization. It refers primary to directing human endeavours and capabilities and co-ordinating the whole as a team through effective leadership.

Managerial Skills: Ekpeyong and Ojo
However, management skills needed for effective job performance consist of various components which include: Planning: This is the process of setting up targets or objectives to be achieved in the future and an outline of appropriate means necessary to accomplish them.
Directing: This is the exerting of influence on people to work towards the organizational goal. It has to do with interpersonal aspect of managing. It involves clarifying, guiding, teaching and encouraging employees to perform effectively, zealously and confidentially.
Controlling: It is the process of ensuring that organizational objective is actually being attained and correcting lapses where they occur. Its elements are setting standard, measuring performance, analysis of results and taking corrective measures (Roy, 2009).

Information and Communication Technology Skills Needed by Students/Graduates for Global Relevance
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has to do with all kinds of technology used to generate, process and use information in various forms. This includes data, voice, image, and multimedia presentation which support and enhance communication. It also involves the interconnectedness of micro-electronics, computers and telecommunication which enables data, texts and video to be transmitted in any part of the world where signals can be received. The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills has ushered in great information innovations in teaching, learning, industry which makes it possible for graduates to become more involved in their work and be result-oriented. On the other land, it makes students to be active participants in the learning process, rather than just being passive learners of educational contents.
According to Okoro (2013)  1. Curiosity: Great entrepreneurs are tasked to discover new opportunities, restructure their original business innovation and process. This is often a concomitant of the entrepreneur's passionate exploration of diverse business endeavours and fields of study outside his or her comfort zone.

Time Management:
This involves pertinent efforts such as adequate priority planning, definition of milestones, execution and operation. It is however worthy of note that none of these efforts leads to progress by itself without effective project management and effective time allocation strategies that get the work done at target.
3. Strategic Thinking: This involves learning to solve organizational problems to the core by figuring out viable solutions to areas of weak results and revealing opportunities for growth.

Efficiency:
This has to do with the need for high performance in the area of problem solving by exploring the 80/20 rule and other relevant measures for producing higher results in less time. It also involves the ability to switch among different chores while progressing effectively from day to day.

5.
Resilence: This involves the resolve and zeal to push on at the duty post everyday without giving into detriments such as stress, waning focus, hanging rejections, burnouts and slow progress. Resilence is vital to building a business from the scratch.
6. Communication: Ability to communicate with partners, peers, clients and others is part of the skills required by an entrepreneur. It is important that this communication should be concise and firm, not creating room for lapses.
7. Networking: Building a network facilities, business opportunities, partnership, engagements, securing sub-contractors and future employees.

Statement of the Problem
Entrepreneurship skills for global relevance is of paramount importance to the nation and the world at large. A nation that cannot provide for its citizenry will mar rather than promote the nation. Education curriculum should not focus on theories alone. Since 21 st Century is an era of digital technology, emphasis should be laid on creativity, innovation, problem solving and skills which are indispensable for navigating the contemporary global space. Students/graduates should be more spurred in order to develop and live in line with global trend. The school/curriculum should be tending towards competition of digital technology, creativity, innovation and not purely knowledge driven.
According to Alfred-Jaja, Ogonibo and Ogeibiri (2019), one of the possible causes of obvious lack of needful skills required by students and graduates is that education in Nigeria addresses only output and capacity development in solving problems. It is in this vein that Davis, Eickelman and Zaka (2013) opine that re-structured education including digital technology could foster development and global relevance. In the same vein, Akhere, Akpomudjere and Ihimenkpen (2017) also maintain that the importance of entrepreneurship skills is that it makes the individual job creator and employer of labour rather than being a job seeker.
It is in this vein that this study focuses on entrepreneurship skills needed by Nigerian tertiary institution students and graduates for global relevance.

Purpose of the Study
The main purpose of the study is to examine the entrepreneurship skills required by students/graduates for global relevance. Specifically, the study is designed to achieve the following: 1. Entrepreneurship skills needed by students/graduates for global relevance.

Research Questions
The following research questions were raised to guide the study: 1. What are the entrepreneurship skills needed by students/graduates of tertiary institutions for global relevance?
2. What are the information and communication technology skills needed by students/graduates for global relevance?
1. There is no significant difference in the opinions of students and graduates on the entrepreneurship skills needed for global relevance.
2. There is no significant difference in the opinions of students and graduates on the information and communication technology skills needed by students and graduates for global relevance.

Methods
The study adopted the survey design. This is because, it is a fact-finding technique that focuses on people. According to Nworgu (2015), a survey design refers to one in which a group of people or items are studied by gathering and analysing data from a few people or items selected as a representative of the entire group.
The population of the study comprises Business Education Lecturers and students from three Polytechnics, four Colleges of Education and Delta State University, Abraka, all in Delta State. Out of this population, a sample of 110 was randomly selected, comprising 53 lecturers and 57 students. Two questionnaires were designed. The first was used to ascertain information for research question one on the entrepreneurship skills needed by students/graduates of tertiary institutions. The second was used to ascertain ICT skills needed by students and graduates for global relevance. Both questionnaires were made up of two sections. Section A comprises the personal information of the respondents while Section B was designed to ascertain information on entrepreneurship including ICT skills needed by students and graduates of tertiary institutions. The administration of the instruments was done by the researcher with the assistance of two other persons. The data collected were analysed using mean and standard deviation for the research questions and independent samples t-test for the null hypotheses. The hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The decision rule was that any item with a mean rating that is 2.5 and above is accepted; while below 2.5 is rejected.

Results
Research Question 1: What are the entrepreneurship skills needed by students/graduates of tertiary institutions?  Table 2 shows the mean rating of the entrepreneurship skills needed by students/graduates of tertiary institutions. The result shows that the mean of the items ranged from 2.54 to 3.48, which are greater than the criterion mean of 2.50. This means that all the items were rated as needed by students/graduates.

Research Question 2:
What are the Information and Communication Technology Skills needed by students/graduates for global relevance?  Table 3 shows the mean rating of the ICT Skills needed by students/graduates for global relevance. The result shows that the mean of the items ranged from 2.51 to 3.27, which are greater than the criterion mean of 2.50. This means that all the items were rated as needed by students/graduates.

Hypothesis 1:
There is no significant difference in the opinions of students and graduates on the entrepreneurship skills needed for global relevance.  Table 4 shows the result of an independent samples t-test, which was conducted on the difference in the opinions of students and graduates on the entrepreneurship skills needed for global relevance. The result shows that t(2.108)= 4.68, p˂0.05 level of significance. Hence the null hypothesis is rejected, which implies that there is a significant difference in opinions of students and graduates on the entrepreneurship skills needed for global relevance. The result further shows that graduates (Mean =3.07, SD =0.25) had a higher mean than students (mean = 2.78, SD =0.39) indicating that graduates need entrepreneurship skills more than students. Cohend value is 0.17, which indicates a larger effect size when compared with the criterion of Cohen (1988).

Hypothesis 2:
There is no significant difference in the opinions of students and graduates on the information and communication technology skills needed for global relevance.  Table 5 shows the result of an independent samples t-test, which was conducted on the difference in opinions of students and graduates on the information and communication technology skills needed for global relevance. The result shows that t (2.108) = 5.45, p˂0.05 level of significance. Hence, the null hypothesis is rejected, which implies that there is significant difference in opinions of students and graduates on the information and communication technology skills needed for global relevance. The result further shows that graduates (Mean = 3.10, SD = 0.25) had a higher mean than students (Mean = 2.77, SD = 0.37) indicating that graduates need ICT skills more than students. Cohend value is 0.22 which indicates a large effect size when compared with the criterion of Cohen (1988).

Discussion
This study investigates the entrepreneurship skills needed by students and graduates for global relevance. From the data obtained in the field, various findings emerged. The study found that the entrepreneurship skills needed by students/graduates of tertiary institutions include trade show planning, promotion, and execution; ability to know gross and net profit; ability to process inventories; ability to keep debtors ledgers; marketing plan evaluation and development; ability to prepare ledgers and extract the trial balance; ability to prepare daily cash reports; ability to interpret financial statement; and ability to know sources of funds. Others include ability to prepare final accounts, profit and loss accounts and the balance sheet; ability to avoid unplanned expenditures and to prepare simple budget; ability to prepare bank reconciliation statements; print advertising programs; ability to understand payroll and various deductions; directing; ability to acquire the skill of preparing financial statements; and ability to keep sales and purchases records.
A corresponding hypothesis revealed that a significant difference exists between the entrepreneurship skills needed by students and graduates. This finding may be as a result of the fact that more graduates, having experienced the job market during their national service year, may have realised the importance of these entrepreneurship skills and may be in need of such more than their counterparts who are still in schools, undergoing training in different undergraduate programmes. This finding agrees with the study of Jones, et al. (2000), who identified some of the entrepreneurship skills needed by graduates to include technical, human, conceptual and business management skills. The finding is also in line with Okpan (2006), who identified marketing skills, to include ability to capture customers' attention and retain their patronage, ability to promote and sell the organization's products, ability to analyse demand and supply situations, ability to possess the demeanour for effective salesmanship and so on. Ekpenyong and Ojo (2008) also identified some management skills, such as ability to plan, organize and manage small scale business, ability to maintain business ethics and ability to interpret market information, ability to develop skills for effective supervision and coordination as well as ability to apply integrating skills.
The study also found that the ICT Skills needed by students/graduates for global relevance include ability to create agenda using contra vision electronic software; ability to merge mails by deleting; ability to key in data; ability to copy, paste or insert in another location; skills in editing text on the screen by inserting materials; skills in producing documents with word processors; skills in producing accounting jobs using spreadsheet software; and ability to use text editing and layout. Others include ability to use borders in designing and decorating typed documents; ability to perform basic data processing; ability to open a desktop publishing environment; ability to receive fax messages; ability to send fax messages; ability to log on or shut-down a computer system; ability to locate and use documents, format existing ones in the system to prepare reports, memos, invoices and letters; and ability to receive e-mail.
A corresponding hypothesis revealed that a significant difference exists between the ICT skills needed by students and graduates for global relevance, with a large effect size, which implies that graduates practically need ICT skills more than students. The reason for this finding may be as result of the experience that graduates may have had during their national service year. Because most of the graduates have experienced the labour market, they may have learnt the necessity of having some of these skills, unlike their counterparts who are still in schools. This finding corresponds with the finding of Okoro (2013), who identified similar ICT skills needed by graduates of Business education programme.

Conclusion
Arising from the findings of the study, it can be concluded that indeed students and graduates need certain entrepreneurship skills as well as ICT skills that will enable them to be relevant in the global market. These skills are needed if they must contribute to the economy of the nation. Graduates as a result of their work experience need more of these skills as they may have some requisite knowledge of these skills.

Recommendations
The following recommendations are therefore made: i. Some of these skills should be integrated into the tertiary education curriculum, so undergraduate students could be exposed to them as early as possible.
ii. Upon graduation, graduates should enrol in some ICT institutions to acquire some of the ICT skills that are needed for global relevance.
iii. Adequate teaching period should be provided for the teaching and learning of entrepreneurship education for in-depth coverage of the scheme and goals attainment.
iv. Government should make available financial resources through granting of loan that will assist the graduates to set up their own businesses as a way of helping them to sustain the acquired skills and also make them self employed or employers of labour.
v. Government should provide necessary and relevant facilities and equipment for sound development of entrepreneurship potentials in graduates that will bring about wealth and value creation for global relevance.