Is Entrepreneurship Education a Solution to Graduates Unemployment: Example from Tanzania’s Private University

Abstract

The performance of Tanzanian economy amidst the abundance of natural resources, strategic location and political stability of late has attracted more investors into the country. Unlike, the socialist era as pronounced by the 1967 Arusha Declaration whereby private business entrepreneurship was actively discouraged in favor of government, community-based or cooperative owned ventures. During the socialist era, regulations were introduced to bar civil servants, university students and leaders of ruling party from engaging in business activities. Since all educated Africans were civil servants, this meant that, business activities were left to Asians and those indigenous people who had no job opportunities in the civil service. Worse still, even in public sector Tanzania’s industries were managed by semi-literate entrepreneurs as a result by mid-1990’s almost all government-owned industries collapsed. This study adopts a case study of Tanzanian private university towards placing the economic development and entrepreneurship skills of self-employment, wealth creation, regional and global competitiveness of Tanzanian university graduates. The major purpose of this study is to investigate the linkage between theory and practice with respect to teaching and research departments/centres in both private and public universities should act as business incubators and entrepreneurship stimulants and how entrepreneurship education at universities inculcating to them entrepreneurship culture. The introduction of entrepreneurship education as a compulsory course and apprenticeship would be tenable strategies to deal with university graduates unemployment and shaping Tanzania’s economy. Furthermore, the study recommends thorough curriculum review, sensitization, advocacy and mobilization of support for entrepreneurship education, funding, political will and active participation of the government should be provided for entrepreneurship culture and development to have spiral effects.