ABSTRACT

The study investigated the entrepreneurial skills required by Economics education students for self-employment and job sustainability in North-Central Nigeria. Twelve research questions guided the study with twelve corresponding Hypotheses tested at 0.5 level of significance. The study employed a descriptive survey research design. The population was 32 Economics Education lecturers in universities in North Central of Nigeria. The researcher employed census sampling technique in selecting the entire population for the study. The study employed a self-designed structured questionnaire as instrument for data collection. The questionnaire titled "Economics Education Students entrepreneurial Skills for Self-Employment and Job Sustainability' Questionnaire (EESESSEJS-Q)” The instrument was face validated by three experts one from Economics Education in the Department ofAgricultural and Vocational education, one from Entrepreneurial studies in Department of Entrepreneurial Studies and one from Measurement and Evaluation, Department of Science Education all in Michael Okpara University ofAgricultural Umudike (MOUAU). The reliability indices were determined using Cronbach Alpha Statistics, which yielded .82, .78, .84, .79, .72, 78. 0.75, 0.80, .75, .78, 81 and 0.79 respectively. Data collected were analyzed using mean score and standard deviation to answer the research questions while t-test statistic was used to testing hypothesis at 0.5% level of significance. The study revealed that students’ information technology skills, marketing skills, personal entrepreneurship skills, technical skills, financial skills, risk -taking skills among others are required by Economics education students forjob sustainability. The study recommended that policy makers, and National University Commission should design entrepreneurship education Curriculum and ensure that skills-acquisition based programmed are taught to Economics Education students in Nigeria University in order to enhance the capacity to be self-employed and job Sustainability after graduation from the University