Dr EXPLANATORY ANALYSIS OF GRADUATE EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS, ENTREPRENUERSHIP SELF-EFFICACY AND PERFORMANCE EFFICIENCY DRIVE ON JOB CREATION ABILITY IN SOUTHWESTERN NIGERIA

Unveiling the Paradox of Skills, Efficacy, and Entrepreneurial Outcomes

Abstract

Job creation ability rests on the socioeconomic philosophy which affirmed that opportunities are created as proactive steps to wade off unemployment and its attendant effects which have largely affected the lives and livelihoods of the Nigerian people. Currently, the unemployment statistics stand at 34.3 %. Previous studies focused more on the analysis of the causes and interventions to economic challenges of unemployment and underemployment as well as strategies to surf the internet for online or remote jobs establish than averting precipitating variables that can trigger job creative abilities. Thus, the study investigated graduate employability skills, entrepreneurship self-efficacy and performance efficiency on job creation ability in southwestern Nigeria. The study adopted descriptive research design of the correlational type while multi-stage sampling procedure was adopted. The six states (LGAs) in Southwestern were enumerated while simple random sampling technique was used to select three states namely Lagos, Osun, and Ekiti States. Also, simple random sampling techniques was used to select 900 graduates from the list officially obtained from government education agency. Through, app-enabled survey, Survey Heart was used to deployed instruments namely Graduate Creative Ability Scale (r=0.77), Graduate Employability Skills Rating Scale (r=0.81); Entrepreneurship Self-efficacy Scale (r= 0.72) and Performance Efficiency Drive Scale (r=0.89) which lasted eight weeks. The quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and Pearson product moment correlation at 0.05 level of significance. The study found that graduates’ job creation ability was negatively related to employability skills and performance efficiency drive, while entrepreneurship self-efficacy showed no significant influence, highlighting a mismatch between acquired skills and entrepreneurial outcomes. Collectively, the predictors made a modest yet significant contribution (3.5%) to job creation ability, suggesting that broader structural and contextual factors play a stronger role. The implication of the findings and recommendations were made accordingly.