Infusing Entrepreneurship Education into Science and Technology Training in Nigeria: Issues and Strategies

Abstract

science and Technology remains unarguably the fulcrum on which advancement progress and improvement in all sectors of any economy revolves while entrepreneurship through learned ingenuity galvanizes and optimizes the opportunities, innovations, skills and competences derivable from the former for product development, commercialization and wealth creation. The growing incidence of youth unemployment and general poverty level in Nigeria calls for a serious rethinking of the capabilities and capacity of the graduates of Science and Technology. It is against this background that the paper examined entrepreneurship, science and Technology as major drivers of the economy and n,1tional development. It reviewed the current system of education and its inherent inadequacies that preclude practical application and foray into entrepreneurship. The paper distilled practices prevalent in emerging economies of Asian countries with a view to extrapolating such lessons as a model of adoption for the crystallization of sustainable entrepreneurship in the Nigerian Science and Technology education. The issues of curriculum, pedagogy, manpower, infrastructure, attitudes, orientation and funding were discussed as critical preconditions for the emergence of effective entrepreneurship in Science and Technology. The paper concluded that the entrenchment of entrepreneurship in Science and Technology education would rekindle the interest of the millennia in the enrolment of the disciplines. It would result in a departure from theoretical knowledge to empowerment for wealth creation and practical solution · to societal problems. Some recommended solutions include establishment of incubation hubs, industry partnership, strengthening of compulsory internship, international exchange programmes, product development and commercialization policies, special legislations and corporate social responsibility initiatives.