Curriculum Design and Entrepreneurial Intention: Bridging Graduates’ Unemployment Gap in Nigeria

Abstract

The study assesses how curriculum design can be used as a lever to propel robust entrepreneurship intentions among graduates in reaction to rising youth unemployment. A total of 19 respondents (graduates and educators) were interviewed to understand the role of curriculum design in the development of entrepreneurial intentions for employment and venture creation. Themes and sub-themes were identified with the NVivo (12) qualitative software. Results revealed ambiguous and outdated course curricula incapacitated to explore and provoke appropriate entrepreneurial intentions. The right mix of entrepreneurial intentions, skills, traits, and competency is largely not infused in the existing higher education curriculum in Nigeria. Addressing graduates’ unemployment challenges is unconnected to having a robust and practical curriculum in tandem with global best practices. The study concludes with the need to revoke the existing Nigeria’s higher education curriculum through the infusion and application of entrepreneurial intentions skills and traits.

Keywords

• curriculum
• entrepreneurship
• graduates
• pedagogy
• unemployment