PLUGGING CURRICULUM GAPS AND PROMOTING PRACTICE-BASED LEARNING FOR IMPROVED ENTREPRENEURSHIP TRAINING IN BUSINESS EDUCATION

Abstract

This study investigated the extent to which curriculum relevance, integration of digital business content, experiential learning strategies, and institutional–industry partnerships influence entrepreneurship training and entrepreneurial competence of business education undergraduates in public tertiary institutions in Cross River State, Nigeria. A descriptive survey design was adopted, covering 424 final-year students, from which 206 were selected through stratified random sampling. A validated questionnaire was used, and reliability yielded a Cronbach’s alpha of .87. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple regression at the 0.05 significance level. Findings revealed that curriculum relevance and integration of digital content significantly influenced entrepreneurship training (R² = .312, F(2,203) = 46.05, p = .000), while experiential learning and institutional–industry partnerships significantly influenced entrepreneurial competence (R² = .287, F(2,203) = 40.86, p = .000). These results accounted for 31% and 29% of the explained variances respectively. The study concludes that modernization of curriculum, digital integration, and sustained academia–industry collaboration are crucial for producing globally competitive graduates. It recommends stronger digital entrepreneurship content and deeper industry linkages to enhance competence. The implications highlight that global competitiveness of Nigerian business education graduates rest on effective curriculum innovation and practice-based learning.