The programme was collaboration between Covenant University and National Board for Technical Education (NBTE).
The workshop was geared towards addressing the lull in the academic programmes of polytechnics in the country with a focus on the reduction of the pressure on the already bloated unemployment market.
According to the Ag. Director, Covenant University Centre for Entrepreneurial Development Studies (CEDS), Dr. Omotayo Adegbuyi, Nigeria from independence has paid inadequate attention to entrepreneurship development as the educational curriculum was primarily packaged towards churning out employable university graduates, rather than molding employers of labour and wealth creators.
Dr. Adegbuyi stated that organizing an entrepreneurship sensitization workshop for Rectors of Polytechnics by Covenant University in conjunction with the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) was apt considering the passion of the Management of Covenant University and the NBTE for the delivery of entrepreneurship education.
Part of the objectives of the two-day workshop was to bring into focus the dual role of an entrepreneurial mindset, proffering solutions for maximizing entrepreneurial education, exchanging ideas and knowledge in accessing entrepreneurial opportunities.
Other objectives include espousing strategies for taking advantage of Venture Capital for ideas generated and making higher education the bedrock for developing, testing and actualizing creative and entrepreneurial skills within the nation’s socio-economic environment.
The Executive Secretary of the National Board for Technical Education, Dr. Masa’udu Adamu Kazaure, represented by the Director of Programmes, Mr. Joseph Aboi said the numerous challenges emanating from the failure of previous educational policies, as touching technical and entrepreneurship education prompted the board of the NBTE to initiate a new policy in 2006 towards making Polytechnics and similar institutions embrace the entrepreneurship programme.
According to him, Covenant University, through her Centre for Entrepreneurial Development Studies, has set the pace and pathway for what entrepreneurial studies should be, by creating the platform for the students to practice what they have learnt.
He noted that the sensitization workshop was organized for Rectors, Provosts and Heads of Institutions under the regulatory purview of NBTE to acquaint themselves with what is expected of them before, during and after the accreditation exercises of the Entrepreneurship Programmes in their institutions.
In his welcome address at the event, the Vice-Chancellor Covenant University, Professor Charles Korede Ayo, recalled his early years in the polytechnic and said that practical work was the hallmark of Polytechnic education. He decried the fallen standard of Polytechnic education and earnestly urged the participants to deliberate and work towards returning Polytechnic education to its glorious days.
Twenty-three institutions from across the six geo-political zones of the country were represented at the workshop.
