ENTREPRENEURIAL SKILL ACQUISITION OF ACCOUNTANCY UNDERGRADUATES FOR SELL-EMPLOYMENT AND GLOBAL ECONOMIC COMPETITIVENESS (A CASE STUDY OF OLABISI ONABANJO UNIVERSITY AGO-IWOYE, OGUN STATE, NIGERIA)

Abstract

Economic viability and societal sustainability of accountancy students upon
graduation depend largely on entrepreneurial skills acquired while in the
university. Observations in the Nigerian society have however shown that a large
percentage of accountancy graduates skills file around work places seeking for
paid jobs instead of being job creators. On the background, this descriptive
survey examined entrepreneurial skills acquisition of undergraduate accountancy
students for self-employment and global economic competitiveness in the labour
market. Three research questions and two null hypotheses were raised and
answered in the study. The population of the study consisted of 650 accountancy
students of Olabisi Onabanjo University Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, Nigeria. A
sample of 200, 300 and 400 levels accountancy students randomly selected
participated in the study. The instrument used for data collection is
entrepreneurship skills acquisition rating scale (ESARE) with a validity value of
0.81. The findings revealed that less than average percentage of the accountancy
students sampled were equipped with the entrepreneurial skills to set up their own
business trade after graduation. Also, the respondents employ ability skills
acquisition level for societal sustainability and global economic competitiveness
is inadequate. The author recommends among others the urgent needs to take a
more pragmatic approach to the acquisition of accountancy knowledge and
entrepreneurial skills for economic empowerment and their societal sustainability
after graduation.