SAKTHI POLYTECHNIC COLLEGE

SAKTHI NAGAR- 638315

NAME: SABARINATHAN.D
ROLL NO: 21ACE435
REG NO: 21401397
DEPT: ECE

SUBJECT: ENTREPRENEURSHIP & STARTUIPS

TOPIC: THE IMPACT OF SKILL ACQUISITION ON ENTREPRENEUR

DEVELOPMENT

DATE:

SIGNATURE:
 THE IMPACT OF SKILL ACQUISITION
ON ENTREPRENEUR DEVELOPMENT
INTRODUCTION:

The Nigerian youth have been denied opportunities to develop in diverse realms of
human endeavours. Ineptitude, mediocrity and intellectual dearth have become the three
hallmarks of Nigerian Youth. In a national survey jointly sponsored by the National
Universities Commission (NUC) and the Education Trust Fund (ElF) in 2004, 61% of 20
organization rated Nigerian science graduates poor in skulls needed in the work
environment such as a literacy, oral communication information technology,
entrepreneurship, analytical, problem- solving and decision making (Okafor, 2011).

Although Sections 17 and 18 of the constitution state that the government shall
provide free and compulsory education in order to promote science and technology and
eradicate literacy (such that) opportunity for securing adequate means of livelihood as well
as adequate opportunity to secure suitable employment is ensured Nwaoko (2009), the
same constitution made it unenforceable by virtue of Section (6)(6)(c).

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:

Entrepreneur development is the process of enhancing the skill set and

knowledge of entrepreneurs regarding the development, management and organization of
a business venture while keeping in mind the risks associated with it. Entrepreneurship is a
process of bringing together creative and innovative ideas, combining them with
management and organization skills in order to combine people, money and resources to
meet an identified need and thereby create wealth. In order to be successful, an
entrepreneur must be sufficiently skilled in a variety of areas to put together the many
ingredients required to create a successful business. One of the main factors in the rise of
entrepreneurship performance is having entrepreneurial skills.

The problem is that most people venture into business without having the required skill
needed to succeed in their choice of business, the resultant effect is business failure. This
problem was corroborated by Amadi (2012) when he said that lack of technical and practical
knowledge of intended business have led to the failure of most businesses worldwide.

Furthermore, most prospective entrepreneur are not mindful of realistic feasibility study
forgetting that a prospective entrepreneur ought to prepare himself with respect to
psychological readiness, feasibility study, legal aspect of the business, estimate of cost of
doing the business and facility requirement of the business. According to Ibru (2009), the
importance of a realistic feasibility study to the success of entrepreneurs cannot be
overemphasized, which most entrepreneurs have undermined.
Moreover, individuals venturing into business are not mindful of business idea screening,
forgetting that people perform relatively to their ability and limitations, pressure and
opportunities in the larger environment which may eventually determine success or failure
of the business.

KIRZNER’S THEORY OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP ALERTNESS:

The theory of entrepreneurship alertness propounded by Kirzner Israel in 1984

centered on entrepreneurial alertness to available but unnoticed opportunities. Kirzner
theory believed that an individual is enriched with the trait to acknowledge opportunity
waiting to be exploited that others failed to recognize. He further stressed that alertness
guides individuals to make discoveries that are precious in the satisfaction of human wants.
Entrepreneurs through their alertness can discover and exploit situations that can be sold at
high prices than that which can be bought at low prices. The theory is relevant to the
research because an individual with entrepreneurial skills is expected to have been
equipped with mental alertness needed for identifying opportunities that can be transfer to
wealth creation thereby creating employment opportunities for him and other citizens .

CONCEPT OF SKILL ACQUISITION:

Skill is the ability to acquire practical knowledge in new conditions and on the
basis of the abilities and experiences a person had previously. It is an activity which is
developed by a person with time and becomes automatic in terms of performing the
required skill (Nneoma, 2017). According to Oke, (2019) certain skill can be considered
acquired when a person can perform it without thinking about the technique of performing
this action or dividing a process into conventional parts. Skill acquisition is the process of
mastering skills characterized by applying them in particular situations. It is the possibility to
learn (Kalu, 2015). Skill acquisition is the significant factor for building a successful career.
Acquiring skills can happen in different ways – by personal experiments in a certain field, by
creative search and constant practicing, by repeating some actions automatically without
implying any thinking processes (Urieto, 2009).

According to Odoko, (2014) skill acquisition in Nigeria is even more important taking into
account the levels of unemployment. Let’s try to figure out more about different types of
skill acquisition and come up with an approximate list of skill acquisition that will help you to
get a job and build a career in Nigeria. The entire life is based on skills acquisition, which is
the constant process. We are getting involved in the skill acquisition processes from the
time we learn how to walk as toddlers. With time, the set of skills just get more complex.
Every person will find personal reasons for skill acquisition.

STAGES OF SKILL ACQUISITION:

 Cognitive Stage
 Associative Stage
 Autonomous Stage
COGNITIVE STAGE:

The first stage of skill acquisition is known as the cognitive stage. Here the learner
will put his focus on things that need to be done. Questions like what to do are essential in
this stage; for example, a lawn tennis player will ask what should be the length of my serves
to maintain that perfect length. To accomplish his purpose, the player will pay attention to
what his coach has to say. In the cognitive stage, the learner tries to learn a skill by receiving
verbal or visual knowledge. The feedback matters and that is why he will be paying close
attention to his instructions that include information related to errors he has been making
and his lack of consistency. This stage of learning is also known as the verbal motor stage, as
verbal feedback plays an essential role in achieving desired results. The cognitive stage
begins by understanding what to do and is all about processing the related information. It
involves verbal conveyance and acquisition or cognition of new information. In the example
mentioned above, the coach is the key to achieve large gains as he tries to make the
feedback look like a cognitive task and not mechanical intervention.

ASSOCIATIVE STAGE:

The second stage of skill acquisition is the associative stage. Essential

characteristics of this stage are less information in the verbal format, conscious
performance, little gains in the performance graph, awkward movement, making
adjustments, and taking a long time to complete tasks.
This is the stage where the learner starts improving his performances after lots of practice.
He associates specific cues with the problems he faces and tries to act accordingly to solve
them. The fundamental has already been established, and now is the time for
improvements and refinement. In the associative stage, the learner puts lots of conscious
effort into body movements to decrease performance variability. The name Motor stage
also knows the associative stage because the issue is about learning how to perform the
skill. The learner puts his onus on making adjustments in his movements and skills.

AUTONOMOUS STAGE:

The third of skill acquisition is the autonomous stage. This is the stage where the player has
gained information and practicing diligently has become automatic. The learner can accomplish it
without any conscious thought as it has become ingrained in his movements. This stage of the motor
learning paradigm takes years of hard work and training. It is reserved exclusively for elite players
whose motor performance has become habitual and whose cognitive process is minimal. In this
stage, a player is capable of attending and processing information at the same time. The phase
where thinking things is less and response is automatic and looks like just a state of natural flow
without any undue effort.

Self-learning plays an integral part in the autonomous stage as skilled performers can identify
errors and make adjustments accordingly by themselves. It is a fact that not many players reach the
third stage. It is the instructions, practice structure, and the task variables that help to
determine whether a player will be able to achieve the autonomous stage or not.
DIMENSIONS OF SKILL ACQUISITION:

The following according to Baridam, (2009) are the dimensions of skill acquisition.

TECHNICAL SKILL:

Technical skills are those skills necessary to produce the business’s product or
service; which are: Operations Specific to Industry, Communications, Design, Research and
Development and environmental Observation (Fashua, 2016). Technical skills according to
Nwinee, (2011) are qualities acquired by using and gaining expertise in performing physical
or digital tasks. Traditionally, people working in mathematics, computer science, mechanics
and information technology use various technical skills. Today, however, many more
industries rely on employees with technical knowledge. For example, retail and foodservice
workers often need to know how to use point-of-sale (POS) software (Ajayi, 2017).

MANAGERIAL SKILL:

Managerial skills are essential to the day-to-day management and administration of a

business undertaking, which are: Planning, Organizing, Directing and Controlling of the
activities of a business in order to realize set objectives (Kutzhanova, 2009). In order to be
successful in planning, organizing, leading, and controlling, managers must use a wide
variety of skills. A skill is the ability to do something proficiently. According to Reynolds,
(2010) managerial skills fall into three basic categories: technical, human relation and
conceptual skills. Technical skills are those skills necessary to produce the business’s
products or services, which are operations specific to industry. Technical skills vary widely
between industry and job type. For computer programmers, knowledge of various coding
languages is considered a technical skill Nwachukwu, (2010). Customer service
representatives may need technical skills relating to customer management and telephone
systems. Teachers might need technical skills related to instructional technologies and
software applications ranging from student behavior monitoring to grading.

INNOVATIVE SKILL:

Innovation skills refer to the talent of exploiting new ideas for the purpose of gaining
social or economic value (Urieto, 2009). Innovation skills are usually a combination of one’s
ability to think creatively, problem-solving ability, as well as functional and/or technical
abilities (Johnson, 2012). Fairly speaking, innovation skills are basically one’s ability to apply
a blend of knowledge, skills and attributes in a specific context. An employee with
innovation skills is usually distinguished due to his visionary thinking in the face of
challenges, and his ability to shape his or someone else’s ideas with commitment and in a
self-acting way (Stanton, 2009).
Innovation in business is the ability to develop and implement something new,
unique, or improved that creates distinctive value for the organization. It includes
incrementally or boldly making changes to or improving existing products, processes,
services, or solutions (Hanson, 2010).
CONCLUSION:

This paper examines the impact of skill acquisition on entrepreneur development. Skill
is the ability to acquire practical knowledge in new conditions and on the basis of the
abilities and experiences a person had previously. It is an activity which is developed by a
person with time and becomes automatic in terms of performing the required skill, while
entrepreneurship development is defined as a process of enhancing the skill set and
knowledge of entrepreneurs regarding the development, management and organization of
a business venture while keeping in mind the associated risk. it is the means of enhancing
the knowledge and skill of entrepreneurs through several classroom coaching and programs,
and training, the main point of the development process is to strengthen and increase the
number of entrepreneurs etc. entrepreneur development is carried out through training
programs and sessions which are aimed at accentuating entrepreneurial acumen.

Pursuing this field as a career entails working towards facilitating skill development
amongst budding entrepreneurs and assisting them tackle their struggles with building their
businesses. The paper concludes that skill acquisition enhances entrepreneur development.

THANK YOU