SOFT SKILLS: A SINE QUA NON FOR EMPLOYABILITY AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP AMONG BUSINESS EDUCATION GRADUATES IN LAGOS STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study assessed the effectiveness of soft skills in business education graduates gaining and sustaining jobs and how soft skills could be used in private entrepreneurial practice. The population comprised 360 students made up of 300 level and 200 level students of the Business Education Department in Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education and Lagos State University of Education, respectively and a sample of 186 students, using random sampling and the table for determining sample size for a finite population in determining the sample of the population. The instrument for data collection was 4- a point rating scale of Very Highly (4 points), Highly (3 points), Moderately (2 points) and Lowly (1 point) questionnaire on Soft Skills: A sine qua non for Employability and Entrepreneurship among Business Education Graduates in Lagos State (SKEEBEGLS). Mean and standard deviation were used to analyse the data generated from the answer to the research questions and the decision rule for the research questions was based on a cut-off point of 2.5 and above for Highly and below 2.5 points for Lowly.  The study's findings showed that the respondents agreed that soft skills were highly required to enhance the employability of business education graduates and for entrepreneurial sake. The study concluded that soft skills will improve the employability of graduates of business education and also enhance their technical skills.  The study could serve both as operational guidelines for business education undergraduate training, as well as intending entrepreneurs.  It was also recommended amongst others that business education graduates must be exposed to various entrepreneurial soft skills and also equip them with all the soft skills for them to create and maintain their customers’ needs.