RECENT developments in South East Asia have already shown other third world countries like Nigeria that a nation’s progress and economic development is not essentially constrained by the levels of natural resources it possesses, but by the human capacity and capability in responding to challenges in the environment. The Asia countries have developed and equipped their human assets with orientation and capacity for spontaneous responses to opportunities of wide ranging patterns both near and far. Because of appropriate entrepreneurial education, training and development, right from childhood every six out of ten people in Indonesia are entrepreneurs. The truth is that entrepreneurship has become a culture of that country and indeed all the Asian Tigers. That is why their economies is the fastest growing and developing ones in the world today. Consequently, entrepreneurship development has equipped the Asian tigers with the competencies of turning their economies to very dynamic ones for national development. For Nigeria and other sub-Saharan African countries to move into the club of great and dynamic economies, there must be massive entrepreneurial training and development. For the desirable entrepreneurial educational training and development for national development, an outline is provided below.
Installing Educational, Training And Development Programmes:
It must be stated here, that the levels of formal education will affect entrepreneurship. In addition, the levels and types of technical, vocational, managerial and other forms of specialized education, training and development will equally affect entrepreneurship. The other side of the coin is that the lack of appropriate and necessary education, training and development would adversely affect the pace of emergency, patterns of behaviours and consequently lead to a slow pace of performance of the economy. Therefore, appropriate entrepreneurial educational training and development porogrammes must be provided for pupils and students of various levels of Nigeria educational systems and for the adult in other forms of social institutions of which they are members.
Basic Entrepreneurial Education At Primary School Level
At the primary level, it is not enough to teach pupils the skills of reading, writing, calculating and elementary science they must be taught how to apply these skills in solving the problems of society. They must be taught to develop vision of a better future society, thus making infants to be visionary conscious. They must be initiated into intuitive sensitivity of seeing order in disorder through practice and deep listening. The young ones must be educated on self awareness and risk taking confidence, which are put of the need for achievement. Based on the challenges of globalisations our pupils should be educated to develop the skill of multicultural responsive that is analyzing different culture to know more about the world of others and how they could be exploited. They must also be introduced to the various occupational areas it heir local environment. The above requirements mean that they become very large bearers in developing great and dynamic economy.
Entrepreneurial Education At The Secondary School Level:
If the 6-3-3-4 educational policy in Nigeria is made functional there would have been little problems in building on the foundations which have been laid at the primary schools levels. There are serious defects in the provision of facilities, equipments and personnel at the primary school level. The implementation of the 3-3 educational programmes at the secondary school level is a must for producing students who will be agents for national development in the 21st century. During the first three years teachers at the secondary school level will have to build on, and further develop the skills of intuitive sensitivity, self awareness, risk taking, visionary consciousness and multinational responsiveness whose foundations should have been laid at the primary school level, at secondary level the last three years of the students will focus efforts in areas where they have exhibited the best competences to contribute most of the social development. Those who are not best suited for pure academic pursuit would at this level branch out into relevant vocational area for them.
Entrepreneurial Education, Training And Development At The Tertiary Education Levels:
This level includes the Colleges of Education, the polytechnics, the universities at graduate and post graduate levels and other forms of private initiatives designed to promote entrepreneurship. It is to be noted that presently, there are some forms of entrepreneurship education and development at the tertiary educational levels. In some institutions it is taught only in one semester to of eight in four years of a student’s academic experience with varying course contests. Some institutions are even planning to provide their students with facilities and fund to practice their pet ideas. The best practice will be to ensure that students take at least a course in entrepreneurship in every year of their academic pursuit at the tertiary educational level, under varying titles such as entrepreneurship development, small business management, management of small scale industry, managing your own business, etc. To produce effective entrepreneurs, the education trainings and development programmes at this level should be of three broad approaches, namely; functional, behavioural and environmental. The functional approach will equip the practicing and would be entrepreneurs with, planning, initiating, controlling, supporting, information, evolution, development of technical, enterprise building and managerial skills. The behavioural approach will focus on building appropriate entrepreneurial attitudes, values, beliefs, norms, customs, perception, motives and needs.
It is environment of the entrepreneurs’ spirit, characteristics and personality. The environmental aspect refers to the external environment. The impetus at this level has to be provided by others. These include the family environment, social and religious groups, formal educational systems, government agencies and private initiatives, the legal and political framework, available technology and cultural system. All of these must act as facilitators for entrepreneurial practice. In addition there must be provision of necessary financial assistance and conducive rural and urban environments, for nurturing and supporting entrepreneurship. This will lead to the development of entrepreneurs who will be agents in spearheading national development economy.
In conclusion, several private and government agencies in Nigeria e.g. Administrative Staff College Of Nigeria (ASCON) and centre for Management Development (CMD) have programmes for developing indigenous entrepreneurs to upgrade their skills. There is need for a “people change approach” if we are to have a great and dynamic economy in Nigeria. Government as well as private organizations’ supports are required urgently to produce needed positive changes. The other important ingredients are values reorientation, disciplined behaviour and leadership by example. All these are components of entrepreneurship education, training and development for national development in Nigeria in the 21st century.
