Assessing the traits of potential entrepreneurs among technical college students

Abstract

Entrepreneurial behaviour is driven by the need for personal achievement leading to a clear productivity for becoming an entrepreneur. One approach to fostering entrepreneurship in science and technical college is to strengthen the entrepreneurial traits in the youths. The objective of the study was to investigate the entrepreneurial traits among entrepreneurs in industries, technical teachers and students in selected technical colleges in Delta and Edo states of Nigeria. Research question and hypothesis were formulated to guide the study. The population of this study was 648 while the sample was 482 selected from a proportionate sampling technique. The research design for this study is the survey. The main instrument used for data collection for the study was a 35-item non-dichotomous structured questionnaire which was subjected to face and content validity. The Cronbach alpha was used to estimate the reliability coefficient of 0.78. Analysis of covariance (ANOVA) tested at 0.05 level of significance, means and standard deviation, were used to analyse data. The respondents differ non-significantly on the traits that determine entrepreneurial potentials. The respondents agreed on 34 traits as desirable and one (working extra hours) as an undesirable trait which should be discouraged since it may lead to unwanted stressors.    Key words: Entrepreneurs, entrepreneurial potentials; college students; Nigeria.