Entrepreneurship education and the motivation to start business in Uganda

Abstract

Entrepreneurship education has become an interesting academic area. The main intention behind its increase in learning institutions is to increase the level of business startups. This study set out to establish the relationship between entrepreneurship education and the motivation to start business among Makerere University Business School students. The study was guided by the following objectives; to examine the relationship between entrepreneurship education and networking, examine the effect of entrepreneurship education on attitude change about business start up, examine the effect of networking on the motivation to start business, examine the effect of attitude change on the motivation to start business and to establish the relationship between entrepreneurship education and motivation to start business.

A cross sectional and correlational quantitative design using a sample population consisted of 393 respondents. The respondents were chosen from the 3rd year BESBM students and alumni from 2002-2006.

The results show that that attitude change and networking are significant predictors of motivation to start business. I therefore recommend that while teaching, entrepreneurship educators should emphasize the aspect of networking through interactions and relationships as well as attitude change where emphasis should be put on information search and confidence, choosing entrepreneurship as a career, optimism personality and inspiration.