Cognition of Entrepreneurial Education Among Mall and Medium Scale Initiative Owners in Jalingo Etropolis, Taraba State, Nigeria

The study examined the perception of entrepreneurial education among Small and Medium scale enterprise owners in Jalingo Local Government Area of Taraba State. Three research questions were formulated to guide the study. The population comprised of One Hundred and Twenty (120) registered small and medium scale enterprise under the National Association of Small Scale Industries (NASSI) and Taraba State Chamber of Commercial Industries and Agriculture (TACCIMA) who are entrepreneurs and beneficiaries of credit and loan scheme in study area. Sample size of One Hundred (100) respondents was drawn using stratified sampling technique. Data was collected from respondents using structured questionnaire and hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance using Chi-square (X2). The results of the findings revealed that, the X2 — calculated (X2c = 181.7) is greater than the X2c tabulated (X2c = 40.1) which rejected null hypothesis and concluded that entrepreneurial education has significant influence in preparing small and medium scale enterprise owners to be enterprising individuals which contributes to the economic development of Nigeria. The study recommended that, the transformation of entrepreneurial education should start from primary through secondary and tertiary levels of educations emphasizing, the cultural orientation and focus on technological studies through all the stages and that the Government should create an environment where exchange of business ideas is easier among SMEs owners