Abstract: | Abstract
Economic trends and changes in the workforce needs have driven many
engineering universities to consider offering entrepreneurship education to
their students. The objective of this study was to explore engineering
students’ perception toward entrepreneurship education and to evaluate how
the teaching of entrepreneurship education could prepare engineering
student to become an entrepreneur. The study was descriptive in nature and
data were gathered through questionnaires and observation. In order to
achieve the objective of the study, simple sampling techniques were used.
Survey data were collected from 230 engineering students enrolled in the
senior - level capstone design courses in five engineering departments
(Electromechanical Engineering, Software Engineering, Chemical
Engineering, Food processing Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering,
Mining Engineering and Civil Engineering) with established
entrepreneurship programs in Addis Ababa Science and Technology
University. Data collected through structured questionnaire was an analysis
of descriptive and inferential statistics. The study found that more than 2/3 of
the respondent do not have an intention to start a business within the next 5
years, more than 3/4 of the students disagreed on the curriculum that do not
encourage to have practical experience. Majority of students perceived that
the university doesn’t promote the entrepreneurship as per the expectation.
Based on these findings, conclusions were drawn and some feasible
recommendations were made. |