Vice Chancellor, University of Ibadan, Professor Abel IdowuOlayinka has emphasised the benefits of entrepreneurship education to students from all socioeconomic backgrounds and the entire citizenry.
He said it would empower individuals by prompting thinking beyond the norm, nurture unconventional talents, skills and create opportunities for the citizenry and improve the economy.
He stated this on last week Tuesday, while declaring open the one-day workshop on “Effective Teaching for Facilitators of Entrepreneurship Education Courses in the University of Ibadan, Nigeria” initiated and coordinated by the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEI) and Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning CETel of the University of Ibadan respectively.
Professor Olayinka, who described the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEI), UI as being core to knowledge production, noted that the workshop is an indicator that it knew the importance of entrepreneurship and the teaching of the same within the university community, therefore paying attention in such a way that it would affect the larger society in the 21st century.
He hinted that the initiative, among others was bound to produce vision and the audacity to pursue it among the citizenry, saying that “it will contribute to the creation of job opportunities and provide individuals with creativity to find their affordances in all life contexts.”
Facilitating on “Case Studies in Entrepreneurship Education,” was the former vice chancellor of the institution, Professor Femi Bamiro, who said the greatest fallacy of education is to think everything someone needs to know must be taught.
According to him, “it is not only university graduates who would deliver development in the country, it is the entire education and training system.”
“The kind of education we are running in the country is tailored towards making everybody become degree holders. There is no way Nigerian economy can create all the jobs required to absorb all our graduates and that is why we are saying that they must be job creators.
“We are hoping that through entrepreneurship education, based on sound theoretical grinding with case study methodology being introduced in the educational system, we would have a more employable graduate that can create jobs,” he stressed.
Speaking at the event, CETel director, Professor Akin Odebunmi said the rationale behind putting such a workshop together was to demonstrate one of the mandate of the centre, which was to ensure the organisation and dispensation of pedagogic knowledge and skills for effective teaching and learning encounter in the institution.
Earlier in his welcome address, director, CEI, Professor AyotolaAremu declared that, to make UI students employable and become entrepreneurs, who would be employers of labour, there is need for continuous professional development for everyone involved in the content delivery and services of any kind at CEI, hence the need for the training.
While speaking on the topic, “Who is an Enterprise Educator?,” Professor Adedoyin Soyibo maintained that an enterprise educator should encourage students to develop self-reliance and confidence, persistence to see their projects to fruition as these would help them to address issues and problems in strategic ways.
One of the facilitators, Mr Ukonu Ukonu, who spoke on “Motivational Techniques for Enterprise Awareness in Higher Education, charged participants to always dream big and stay motivated until the set goals were achieved.