| Abstract: | In the past, students of higher learning institutions in Ethiopia had
guarantee of employment either in the public sector or in private firms.
Currently, they are finding it difficult to secure employment in these
sectors. Therefore, this study was aimed at exploring self-employment
intentions of private higher education students and their attitudes
towards entrepreneurship. By using convenience and snowball
samplings, the primary data were gathered over a two month period,
through the administration of a self-completion questionnaire delivered
to 180 final year distance learning students from Business and
Economics fields. The survey data were analyzed using SPSS. The good
majority of the students agreed by expressing their wish to start business
in an ideally considered age level of 31-40 as they would like to be their
own boss. They also believed that they have business skills and
knowledge, required for business ownership than students who do not
want to start business. Nevertheless, the most inhibiting factors for
students who did not want to start business are the shortage of initial
capital and fear of taking risks. They also considered business ownership
as giving them less control over their lives and, therefore, believe it
would be easier to work for someone else. Interestingly, 81% of these
students expressed their belief that good business support structure
would encourage them to start business. Therefore, these findings have
implications for academicians, educators in entrepreneurship, policy
makers, enterprise support agencies and future young entrepreneurs. |
