Perception of Engineering Students on Entrepreneurship Education

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.