Abstract:
The major purpose of this study was to determine the influence of entrepreneurship education on the management of service industries in Owerri senatorial zone of Imo State as perceived by the proprietors. Five research questions were answered and five hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The population for the study consisted of 180 operators of service industries that are registered with Owerri senatorial zone revenue collectors office. The entire population was studied, hence no sample was taken. Survey research design was used for the study. Structured questionnaire was used to generate data for the study. This instrument was face validated by three experts from Department of Vocational Teacher Education, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The questionnaire was pilot tested with a sample of 30 operators of service industries drawn randomly in Abia State. Cronbach Alpha reliability test was used to determine the internal consistency of the instrument and this yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.98. Data were analysed using mean statistics for the research questions and t-test was used to test the null hypotheses. The entrepreneurs were influenced by the ability to define the objectives and goals of their service industries. Based on the findings, it was concluded that, proprietors of service industries should have the ability to implement timely decisions, develop core skills that are stable and have lasting career impact on the employees. It was recommended that proprietors of service industries in Owerri should embark on entrepreneurship capacity building to ensure better understanding of entrepreneurship education and the operations in business. This could be achieved by collaborative efforts with the relevant educational institutions, government agencies and through the organization of seminars, workshops, conferences and training programmes for both the management and the staff concerned.
