Entrepreneurship education and undergraduate students' self-employment intentions: do paid employment intentions matter?

What is it about?

Undergraduate students have two conflicting employment intentions, viz. self- and paid-employment intentions. While a plethora of studies have explored the links between entrepreneurship education (EE) and undergraduate students’ self-employment intentions (SEIs), it has been noted that past empirical studies have ignored the effects of paid-employment intentions on the relationship between EE and SEIs. It is against this backdrop that this study empirically explores the effects of paid-employment intentions on the relationship between EE and SEIs. A structured questionnaire was administered to collect primary data from a randomly selected sample of 95 undergraduate students of Accounting in Nigeria. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was performed to test the hypotheses formulated. The results of Model 1 showed that EE had a significantly positive link with SEIs. On the other hand, Model 2 revealed an inverse relationship between paid-employment intentions and SEIs. Further analysis indicated that the impact of EE on SEIs reduced significantly when paid-employment intentions was added to Model 1. Based on the findings, it can be concluded that paid-employment intentions matter in the relationship between EE and SEIs. The findings provide greater insights into the problem of graduate unemployment and thus have practical and policy implications for the government and policymakers in the tertiary education sector, particularly in dealing with the problem of graduate unemployment.

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