LEVERAGING AND RETHINKING OF ENTREPRENUERSHIP EDUCATION FOR EMPLOYMENT GENERATION THROUGH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Abstract

The study examined the effectiveness of creating employment opportunities through artificial intelligence (AI) amongst postgraduate entrepreneurship students in Enugu State tertiary institutions. The research was guided by three research questions, three objectives and three hypotheses. Descriptive survey design was employed. The population comprised of 1200 postgraduate entrepreneurship students in the Enugu state prominent tertiary institutions, namely; University of Nigeria, Nsukka and Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) Purposive sampling technique was used to select a sample of 150 postgraduate. Students from each institution, totaling the sample size to 300. Data was collected through a self-structured questionnaire based on a four-point rating scale. The instrument's validity was evaluated by two experts from Centre for entrepreneurship education and one from measurement and evaluation from the institutions. Reliability was established using the test-retest method, yielding a reliability coefficient of 0.80, indicating suitability for the study. Data analysis was conducted using mean and standard deviation, while t-test statistics was to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings indicated that that there is no significance difference between entrepreneurship postgraduate students of University of Nigeria, Nsukka and their Enugu State University of Sciences and Technology counterpart on the extent to which artificial intelligence technologies are applied in learning of entrepreneurship education. Also, the result revealed that there is significant difference in the mean ratings of postgraduate students of University of Nigeria, Nsukka and their Enugu State University of Sciences and Technology counterpart on the extent to which artificial intelligent technologies is integrated in learning of entrepreneurship education. More so, it was revealed that that there is no significance difference in the mean ratings of postgraduate students of University of Nigeria, Nsukka and their Enugu State University of Sciences and Technology counterpart on the extent to which artificial intelligent technologies makes it possible for Postgraduate entrepreneurship education Students self-reliant after graduation. It was concluded that artificial intelligence (AI) in entrepreneurship education can revolutionize the field of education, reduce high unemployment rate and make onerous task less tedious. The researcher recommends amongst others that educators should be provided with more adequate resources to effectively integrate artificial intelligence technologies into the classroom, which will enhance teaching and learning process. There is need for students to be periodically engaged in specialized training sessions, conferences, webinars, and professional networks that focus on data analysis and predictive analytics.