Effectiveness of entrepreneurship education in a turbulent economy: the perceptions of entrepreneurship graduates in Zimbabwe.
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Date
2020
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Abstract
The effectiveness of entrepreneurship education may be enhanced if graduates’ views on the
issue are made known. Ever since Zimbabwean universities started offering entrepreneurship
as a discipline, graduates’ views on the effectiveness of the programme have not been
explored. Empirical evidence shows that there is a positive correlation between
entrepreneurship education and economic development. Contrary to the above, however, the
Zimbabwean situation has negative pointers. Eentrepreneurship education is regarded as a
poverty alleviation strategy the world over; yet, regardless of the large numbers of
Zimbabwean entrepreneurship graduates qualifying for the industry every year, the economy
does not seem to recover. This necessitated a study into the effectiveness of entrepreneurship
education in a turbulent economy from the entrepreneurship graduates’ perspective. The
focus was to assess the extent of entrepreneurship education in Zimbabwean universities,
graduates’ perceptions on the effectiveness of training methods used in entrepreneurship
education, the influence of experiential learning on entrepreneurship education as well as the
influence of entrepreneurship education on venture creation and creativity. The positivist
philosophy together with the descriptive design and quantitative approach were used in this
study. The cluster sampling method was used to select 223 participants out of a target
population of 526 Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT) entrepreneurship graduates of
2012-2016. Questionnaires were used to gather data which was analysed using SPSS version
22. The findings revealed that entrepreneurship education was being offered from primary
school to tertiary level in Zimbabwe. Furthermore, the findings revealed that the
Zimbabwean entrepreneurship teaching methods were not effectively promoting
entrepreneurs. Experiential learning and other more practical approaches were seen as
appropriate for entrepreneurship training. Graduates believed that entrepreneurship education
has a positive influence on venture creation and creativity. It was recommended that
entrepreneurship education should be reinforced across all the learning levels (primary school
up to tertiary) and a clear demarcation to be made at each level. A comprehensive overhaul
of entrepreneurship teaching methods and approaches used to cater for experiential learning
were recommended. Further recommendations were the involvement of stakeholders in the
formulation and implementation of policies facilitating venture creation and creativity,
commercialisation and industrialisation of products and services.
Description
Doctoral Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg.