The effectiveness of entrepreneurship education in the selected high schools, TVET colleges and public universities in KwaZulu-Natal province

Abstract

People around the world are increasingly seeing entrepreneurship is an avenue to create wealth, stimulate economies, and fulfil self-employment hopes. Entrepreneurship has also become a powerful tool for creating jobs and improving economic conditions in the labour market and economy as a whole. Moreover, with the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, a variety of additional competencies involving creativity, innovation, and agility are required for young entrepreneurs. Many South African government educational institutions are currently considering embedding entrepreneurship education within their curricula. Considering the shifting entrepreneurial environment, teaching staff (educators, lecturers, and instructors) must constantly be adjusting the educational practices, procedures, and curricula to ensure the best outcomes for future entrepreneurs. Public institutions of learning (PILs) need to entice students through programmes that are relevant. As the entrepreneurial environment has changed, so have the expectations of educational programmes. This study therefore seeks to evaluate the current effectiveness of entrepreneurship education in PILs in KwaZulu-Natal – secondary education; technical, vocational and training (TVET) colleges and universities. South Africa as a developing country has a high rate of unemployment, while the failure rate of start-up businesses is also high. These issues have triggered the South African government’s efforts to help solve the unemployment crisis through the promotion of entrepreneurship. Critical questions remain, however, such as whether entrepreneurship education in PILs is effective enough to develop an entrepreneurship mind-set in students, and how effectively these institutions can influence students to value self-employment and create their own businesses rather than remain job seekers. In addition, interest and investment in entrepreneurship education are increasing in all PILs from secondary schools to graduate schools. This entrepreneurship education has become important in tandem with the demand of students seeking a business education that can provide the necessary competencies to succeed in an increasingly diverse and complex management environment. The current critical situation concerning entrepreneurship in the country motivated this study The study applies a mixed method inductive approached to capture the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education from the perspective of teaching staff and students in PILs. Separate questionnaires for teaching staff and for students, each contained quantitative and qualitative (interview-type) questions which respondents were asked to complete independently (self-administered). These were followed by interviews which the researcher conducted with each individual (both students and instructors) face-to-face. The data collection process would thus result in both qualitative and quantitative responses, and two qualified statisticians were employed to analyse the data - one being responsible for the quantitative analysis, and one for the qualitative analysis of the interview questions. The study involved identifying the factors in teaching and learning entrepreneurship including attitudes, level of awareness, barriers to inclusion and effectiveness. Non-probability purposive sampling techniques were used. The total population of the study was 758 and the sample size was 256 which was determined through Krejcie and Morgan (1970) Table (Sample size Table). The 256 participants who made up the units of analysis for this study; consist of 100 academics who teach entrepreneurial studies and 156 final year students in the Departments of Management and Entrepreneurship Studies or Business Studies from PILs in Kwa-Zulu Natal. A response rate of 85% was achieved. An inductive thematic analysis was used to analyse the data obtained from interview questions. The study was underpinned by different applicable entrepreneurship education theoretical frameworks, including principally the Theory of Planned Behaviour by Ajzen (1991) that guided the choice of instrument and the development and results of the study. The findings reveal that PILs lack an inclusive model that meets the quality standards required for successful teaching of entrepreneurship despite the dedication of many instructors. Resource constraints were identified by both staff and students as serious inhibiting factors including especially a lack of experienced and trained teachers of entrepreneurship. The insights gained from the intensive interviewing of both educators and students ensured strong qualitative data findings from each university and representative TVET colleges and high schools in the province. It was established that the current curricula are not able to guarantee the acquisition of an entrepreneurial mind-set amongst students of entrepreneurship despite the dedication of many educators and students. The ‘theory of planned behaviour’ illuminated this investigation and this conclusion. Without more resources and more, and better trained, educators, fully appraised of the requirements for developing an entrepreneurial mind-set, it cannot yet be claimed that PILs are able to make the contribution to economic growth and job creation which is the potential for this form of education. The theory was supported with a further dimension suggested. This information will be valuable for educators and policy makers within government institutions at high school and higher education levels. While the findings of the study are not generalizable beyond the Province of Kwa-Zulu Natal (KZN), the identical syllabi for government high schools and TVET colleges and the similarity in context between KZN other provinces of South Africa will make them of interest to educators and to policy makers throughout the country.