Abstract

The rate of graduate unemployment in Nigeria has persistently been on the increase despite the enormous endowment of the country with human and natural resources. This study therefore examined the impact of entrepreneurial education on unemployment among Nigerian graduates serving in Lagos State. This study adopted the survey research design. A sample size of 250 youth corpers was selected through the simple random sampling technique from the population of youth corpers in Lagos State, Nigeria. Data were collected using Demographic Data Inventory (DDI) and “Reducing Unemployment among Nigerian Graduates through Entrepreneurial Education Questionnaire” (RUNGEEQ). Demographic data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequency distributions and percentages) and hypotheses were tested by means of the simple linear regression analysis at .05 level of significance. Findings revealed that entrepreneurship education significantly contributes to unemployment reduction (? = .228, t = 10.105, p < .05), graduate entrepreneurs’ skills have a significant influence on unemployment reduction (? = .273, t = 13.186, p < .05), entrepreneurship skills training curriculum contents had no significant impact on critical thinking and business idea generation (? = .074, t = 1.492, p > .05), and entrepreneurship pedagogy significantly affects graduate shared-vision and identification of business opportunities among youth corpers (? = .214, t = 9.052, p < .05) in Lagos State, Nigeria. The study concluded among others that, there were significant individual contributions of entrepreneurship education and graduate entrepreneurs’ skills to unemployment reduction among youth corpers in Lagos State, Nigeria. It was recommended, among others, that policy makers, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), universities, and other stakeholders in Nigeria should design and integrate a general entrepreneurship curriculum into all their programmes and activities.