Experiential learning in entrepreneurship education: A case Of CEFE methodology in Federal University of Technology Minna, Nigeria

Abstract

Huge unemployment amongst Nigerian university graduates led the Federal Government to mandate entrepreneurship education amongst all Nigerian universities in 2008. The hope of this policy was that Nigerian graduates would possess the necessary skills needed to start up a business instead of relying solely on jobs as employees, thus reducing the level of unemployment amongst these graduates. Teaching entrepreneurship is one thing, but the method of teaching entrepreneurship was crucial to the success of this policy. In 2008, the German Technical Corporation (GTZ) introduced an experiential-based method of teaching entrepreneurship known as the Competency Based Economies thorough the Formation of Enterprise (CEFE). Several entrepreneurship lecturers from many Nigerian universities were trained using the CEFE methodology, and the Federal University of Technology, Minna (FUTMIN) was also a beneficiary with more than 10 certified trainers. The paper sought to ascertain how effective the CEFE methodology had been in successfully teaching entrepreneurship to students of FUTMIN over the last seven years since its introduction. This was achieved by interviewing ten certified trainers across various departments of the university. A content analysis of these interviews revealed that the trainers had a very positive experience using the CEFE methodology over these seven years. However, they identified a few obstacles that had hindered their full utilization of this methodology, and also identified several ways to improve the effectiveness of this methodology