The Extent of Entrepreneurship Skills Development through TVET Programs in Botswana

Master's Thesis from the year 2018 in the subject Pedagogy - The Teacher, Educational Leadership, grade: Pass, , course: Education, language: English, abstract: The aim of this dissertation was to investigate the extent of entrepreneurship skills development through TVET programs in Botswana at FCTVE as a technical college. To attain this work, inductive method was used. Representative sample of graduates for the class of 2008-2015 were used as subjects of the research. Open ended interviews were used as a method of data collection. Looking at the investigation of the study, the training of entrepreneurship could immensely contribute in allowing graduates to have business skills and competencies that could be more important in identifying business opportunities and operate their own businesses. Furthermore, the training of entrepreneurship has not yet been considered by the government since it can bring positive results on graduates on self-employment as a career development. By utilizing qualitative approach the research adopted open ended interviews as a method of collecting data. Data saturation was arrived at 22 graduates from 2008-2015 for Francistown Technical college graduates who were purposively sampled.

The research found that the TVET graduates do not have passion about entrepreneurship since they are not interested in being employers but rather they want to be employees. Participants stated challenges for entrepreneurship and these included lack of funds as well as institutions and stakeholders failing to work together in order to produce quality entrepreneurs. Strategies that were suggested during the study include: review of the curriculum content and training instructors so that TVET could have enough number of personnel teaching entrepreneurship. The study also found that TVET graduates are not able to start their own businesses due to lack of capital. It was recommended that the Botswana Government should be seen supporting graduates by developing funding strategies that can give graduates the opportunity to apply their skills. The findings further revealed that TVET graduates are not experienced and they do not have the skills to operate their businesses and some hesitate since they do not want to be risk takers.