Institutional Practices and Youth Entrepreneurial Development Skills in Federal College of Education Technical Gusau, Zamfara State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigates institutional practices and youth entrepreneurial development skills at the Federal College of Education Technical, Gusau, Zamfara State, Nigeria. It develops the literature; unlike previous descriptive studies, it hypothesized that the relevance of the curriculum, the quality of training delivery, and structured industrial partnerships have a positive and significant impact on youth entrepreneurial development skills. This study used descriptive survey research, with 293 staff across the eight schools as the population, and a sample size of 169 was determined using Taro Yamane's formula. This study employs a proportional stratified random sampling to ensure a fair representation across the schools. Employing multiple regression analysis through SPSS 25, it reveals that the relevance of the curriculum (β = 0.456, p = 0.000) and formal industry partnerships (β = 0.473, p = 0.000) have a positive and significant impact on youth entrepreneurial development skills, whereas the quality of training delivery (β = 0.093, p = 0.249) has an insignificant impact. This study concludes that the degree of skills impact on the youth entrepreneurial development skills at FCET Gusau is largely influenced by the institutional practices. Curriculum relevance and meaningful industrial relationships are very important in entrepreneurship skills, but mere quality training delivery can never succeed effectively without the right resources and working infrastructure. One of the major recommendations of this study is that the management should enhance and formalise collaboration with other industries, particularly the local SMEs and agribusinesses, to enhance youth entrepreneurial development skills.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship Skill, Curriculum Relevance, Industrial Partnership, Institutional Practice, Training Quality.