Abstract:
The study examined university graduates perception of entrepreneurship education for self-employment in Cross River State, Nigeria. The need for the study was borne out of the problem university graduates find in getting white collar jobs to do after school popularly called unemployment. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The study was guided by four research questions and two null hypotheses. The population for the study was 1065 university graduates while the sample comprised of 300 university graduates drawn from the two universities in Cross River State. Proportionate stratified random sampling technique was used to select the sample. The instrument for data collection was a researcher’s structured questionnaire titled “University graduates perception of entrepreneurship education for self-employment (UGPEESEQ)” was used to elicit information from the university graduates. The instrument consist of 29 items developed by the researcher. The instrument was administered to three hundred (300) university graduates in the two universities in Cross River State. The data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions and t-test was used to test the hypotheses. The study revealed that entrepreneurship skills such as management skills, marketing skills and accounting skills are very necessary for university graduates to acquire in school, to enable them become self – employed after in a bid to curb the problem of unemployment n Cross River State. The study also revealed that creativity in business is necessary for business growth due to its dynamic nature thereby arousing the interest of customers for continued patronage. Based on the findings and implications of the study, the researcher recommended among others that government should make policies that will be favourable to entrepreneurs in Cross Rivers State. The stress faced by university graduates in obtaining loan to start business should be reviewed for ease of access
