Khadija Alaa Makki
Business and Management Department, Tishk International University, Erbil, Iraq
Email: [email protected]
Dr. Jwan Saeed Hussein
Department of Management, College of Administration and Economics, University of Salahaddin,Erbil, Iraq
Zhiar Abdulqadir
Business and Management Department, Tishk International University, Erbil, Iraq
Email: [email protected]
DOI: 10.23918/ICABEP2019p27
(Full Paper)
Abstract
Entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial skills development have been grabbing scholars’ attention in the case of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq where economic growth has gone through rapid ups and downs over the last ten years due to regional and political instability. This paper is an attempt
to assess the level of students’ awareness about entrepreneurship concepts and to examine the education impact on the students’ career intentions and entrepreneurial competencies at business schools in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. A preliminary survey questionnaire was prepared using 5- point Likert scale to examine the impact of students’ knowledge on their intentions and skills to start
their own businesses. The questionnaire was tested to validate the variables and was found highly reliable (27 items; α = .82). A sample of two hundred forty-eight (248) students were given the survey questionnaire from Salahaddin University and Tishk International University third and fourth years in Business Schools out of which 228 respondents properly answered the survey questions. Descriptive statistics and two leaner regressions were applied using SPSS v25 in which the independent variable was entrepreneurial education and the dependent variables were entrepreneurial intentions and entrepreneurial skills respectively. The findings of this research revealed that entrepreneurship education is a significant determinant of entrepreneurial intentions and skills among the sample undergraduate students. The results also show that entrepreneurship education is beneficial and have positive impact on the participants’ intentions to start their enterprises. It is recommended therefore that the entrepreneurial skill acquisition programs should be integrated into the business schools’ curriculum as major courses of study for all students.
Keywords: Entrepreneurship education, career intentions, curriculum development.
ICABEP2019
International Conference on Accounting, Business, Economics and Politics
ISBN: 978-9922-9036-3-7
