Journal of Enterprising Culture Vol. 17, No. 1 (March 2009) 103–125 ENTREPRENEURIAL INCLINATIONS OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION STUDENTS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF MALE AND FEMALE TRAINEES IN IRINGA REGION, TANZANIA DONATH R. OLOMI ∗ and ROSE S. SINYAMULE University of Dar es Salaam Entrepreneurship Centre (UDEC) Dar es Salaam, Tanzania ∗ [email protected]This study examined entrepreneurial inclinations among vocational training cen- tres (VTCs) using a sample of 508 trainees from 12 VTCs in Iringa region, central Tanzania. A majority of VTC trainees have interest in starting own businesses, motivated primarily by the need to have control over their own lives. While gender and having taken entrepreneurship courses have no significant effects on start-up inclinations, perceived chances of getting a job and background of entrepreneurial family are positively associated with interest in entrepreneurial intention. Results suggest a need to re-examine entrepreneurship training in VET and for policy makers to be careful in promoting entrepreneurship as an alternative career for those unable to secure paid jobs. Keywords: Entrepreneurship; vocational education; entrepreneurial aspirations. INTRODUCTION Background Many African countries, including Tanzania envisage to create a strong, diversified, resilient and competitive economy that can cope with the challenges of the regional and global economy. Many countries are also committed to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for reduc- ing poverty, hunger, diseases, illiteracy, environmental degradation and ∗ Director and Senior Lecturer, University of Dar es Salaam Entrepreneurship Centre (UDEC), P. O. Box 110099 Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. 103
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Journal of Enterprising CultureVol. 17, No. 1 (March 2009) 103–125
ENTREPRENEURIAL INCLINATIONS OF VOCATIONALEDUCATION STUDENTS: A COMPARATIVE
STUDY OF MALE AND FEMALE TRAINEES INIRINGA REGION, TANZANIA
DONATH R. OLOMI∗ and ROSE S. SINYAMULEUniversity of Dar es Salaam Entrepreneurship Centre (UDEC)
This study examined entrepreneurial inclinations among vocational training cen-tres (VTCs) using a sample of 508 trainees from 12 VTCs in Iringa region, centralTanzania. A majority of VTC trainees have interest in starting own businesses,motivated primarily by the need to have control over their own lives. While genderand having taken entrepreneurship courses have no significant effects on start-upinclinations, perceived chances of getting a job and background of entrepreneurialfamily are positively associated with interest in entrepreneurial intention. Resultssuggest a need to re-examine entrepreneurship training in VET and for policymakers to be careful in promoting entrepreneurship as an alternative career forthose unable to secure paid jobs.
Many African countries, including Tanzania envisage to create a strong,diversified, resilient and competitive economy that can cope with thechallenges of the regional and global economy. Many countries are alsocommitted to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for reduc-ing poverty, hunger, diseases, illiteracy, environmental degradation and
∗Director and Senior Lecturer, University of Dar es Salaam Entrepreneurship Centre(UDEC), P. O. Box 110099 Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
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discrimination against women by 2015. All governments recognize Micro,Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) as key to attaining these goals.MSMEs constitute a significant part of the private sector and are expected tobe the driving force for job creation, industrialization and economic devel-opment.
Since SMEs tend to be labour-intensive, they create employment at rel-atively low levels of investment per job created. At present, unemploymentis a significant problem that many African countries have to deal with. InTanzania, estimates show that there are about 700,000 new entrants into thelabour force every year. About 500,000 of these are school leavers with fewmarketable skills. The public sector employs only about 40,000 of the newentrants into the labour market, leaving about 660,000 to join the unem-ployed or the underemployed reserve. Most of these persons end up in theSME sector, and especially in the informal sector (URT, 2003).
Empirical evidence shows that almost all of those who start businesses inthe informal sector remain at the micro level. Their businesses are not able togenerate sufficient income and growth to contribute meaningfully to povertyreduction, wealth creation, and competitiveness of the economy as well as aviable tax base. Despite the existence of many natural resources as well as alarge market for some products and services, micro and small enterprises insome countries, including Tanzania, are unable to take advantage of these togrow. For example, local companies are unable to provide the consistency,volumes and quality demanded by large and consistency the market forfurniture in the public and private sector
One of the most debilitating constraints is limited awareness and capacityof existing and potential business operators, in terms of exposure, values,attitudes, knowledge and skills. The result is that they most simply duplicatewhat their neighbours are doing and do not appreciate the importance ofinnovation, quality, credibility and customer-care. Consequently, most of therequirements in the public and private sector are imported from abroad. Theseinclude furniture in both government and non-government institutions, foodand many other supplies in the mining, tourism and manufacturing sectors,etc. This is unfortunate a country, such as Tanzania, where export capacityis limited and where so much human resources is under-employed.
One of the reasons for this state of affairs is that the education and trainingsystem does not consciously develop values, attitudes and skills that enablepeople to see and realize the potentials around them. It has been reported thatone of the reasons for limited upward mobility is that most operators startbusinesses because of economic necessity (Olomi, 2001). Operators are just“hanging on” on these activities, rather than having committed themselves to
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do it as a career. The fact that they have been pushed into business affects theMSE sector participants’ self-perception, future intentions and behaviours.In relation to SME operators in Tanzania, Toroka and Wenga (1997) haveobserved that:
“…Many believe that they are in the MSE sector by failure,if not of their own, then that of the state, or worse that of fate.Few attach value to what they are doing. If asked for theirpreferences, a majority would rather be employed in someformal establishment. This is most clearly expressed by whatthey wish for their children. Many owner-managers in theMSE sector in Tanzania are anxious that their children attainhigher levels of education so that they may be spared life inthe sector. They do not regard their business as an estate tobe hatched for the day their children could take over” (p. 25).
In relation to their entrepreneurial behaviour, Oyhus (1999) has noted thatthey are neither risk-taking nor opportunity seekers. Regarding innovation,they are almost uniformly copyists and when they do something new (suchas starting a business) it is because they are forced to do so. Only a very smallminority develop positive motivation and adopt growth-seeking behaviours(Olomi, 2001). This may explain why even most of those who go through theextensive vocational education system are unable to demonstrate competitivecapacity even in the local market.
Problem Statement
For small enterprises to become an engine of widely shared growth, it is nec-essary that learning institutions develop competencies that enable their grad-uates to start and develop meaningful enterprises. Different colleges havetaken measures in this direction, including introduction of entrepreneurshipcourses. The notion of using the mainstream education and training system todevelop entrepreneurial competencies is a relatively recent phenomenon andthere is little knowledge of what the objective should be and what approachesmay work best, how and why. Success in this endeavour demands a goodunderstanding of entrepreneurial inclinations of trainees as well as the effectof interventions already underway. In particular, it is important to know thedegree to which VTC trainees are attracted to self-employment and fac-tors, which contribute to the inclination. As well, where entrepreneurshipcourses have been introduced, it is useful to assess the impact these have on
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students inclinations. The study therefore, attempted to answer the followingquestions:
(i) To what extent are the VTCs graduates interested in starting ownenterprises?
(ii) To what extent are VTCs trainees motivated to start or develop substan-tial enterprises as opposed to micro enterprises?
(iii) What is the effect of entrepreneurship courses on students’ entre-preneurial inclinations?
(iv) What factors may explain differences in interest in self-employmentand firm size aspirations among trainees?
The findings are relevant to policy makers, curriculum developers and train-ers on suitable approaches for producing graduates who are better preparedto create jobs, wealth and contribute more effectively to national goals ofpoverty reduction, economic growth and competitiveness. It also contributesto knowledge on entrepreneurial motivation.
Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurial Inclinations
Although there has been a tendency to treat small businesses synonymouslywith entrepreneurship, the later is not confined to business operators. AllanGibb, a renowned entrepreneurship expert defines entrepreneurship as wayof thinking, reasoning, and acting that results in the creation, enhancement,realisation, and renewal of value for an individual, group, organisation, andsociety. At the heart of this process is the creation and/or recognition ofopportunities followed by the will and initiative to seize these opportunities(Gibb, 2006). Entrepreneurship has to do with one’s values, attributes andbehaviours. It may be displayed both through creating new organizations(including business) as well enhancing what already exists.
However, entrepreneurial inclinations as used in this study refers narrowlyto the attitudes and intentions towards starting and developing a business. Itencapsulates the extend to which one is determined to start a business as wellas how one intends to develop it. Related to these are the underlying mortivesfor such inclinations. Entrepreneurial inclinations include the following.
Literature on Influences on Entrepreneurial Behaviour
Entrepreneurship scholars have explained propensity to start businessesin terms of psychological, sociological, and environmental factors.Psychological theories view entrepreneurial behaviour as a function of in-born qualities. Individuals with high need for achievement, strong sense of
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independence, internal locus of control and a moderate risk-taking propen-sity are more likely to start their own businesses compared to others. Theseattributes “naturally” drive them to starting and developing their own inde-pendent businesses. This is because the entrepreneurial career offers greaterpossibilities for them to realize their potentials and is more consistent withtheir need for freedom compared to salaried employment. However, mostindividuals in Tanzania as in many other developing countries are driven tostart businesses out of economic necessity — they don’t have salaried jobsand must start some income generating activity to meet basic needs. It hashowever been reported that those who start because of economic necessityhave a passive disposition towards the future (Olomi, 2001) and are neitherrisk takers nor innovative (Oyhus, 2001).
Sociological theories suggest that entrepreneurial attitudes, intentions andbehaviours are socially generated and sustained. For example, those whogrow up around a society or family that runs business or where businessentrepreneurship is highly valued are likely to learn and model this ten-dency, perceiving it to be feasible, more socially desirable and rewardingthan employment (Hisrich and Peters, 2002). Also, marginalized individu-als may be driven to seek freedom and success independently through busi-ness activity. The desire to develop (or not to develop) a growing enterprisemay also be influenced by the meaning that one attaches to business, whichin turn is socially generated and sustained. For example, people who startbusinesses because they enjoy performing the operational role in the busi-ness (carpentry, tailoring, hair dressing, etc.) may not be motivated to growbeyond the owner-managed phase because they will be forced to take on asupervisory role in the business, which is not their primary motivation forstarting the business (Stanworth and Curran, 1976; Olomi, 2001).
In Tanzania, as in many other societies, women are socialized to preferactivities which are related to their reproductive role and to be less ambitiouscompared to men. Indeed, research shows that women entrepreneurs tend toput less importance on traditional measures of performance, such as growthand profits and more importance on relationships and ability to effectivelycombine business and family roles (Nchimbi, 2002). Mushipe (2002) foundfemale University students to prefer gendered type of activities and havelower growth aspirations compare to their male counterparts.
The VETA Labour Market Report of 2002 revealed that very few graduateof vocational training institutions were interested to become self-employed.In the selection interview for joining vocational training centres, mosttrainees reported that they wanted to join VTCs because their parents didnot have money to pay for their secondary education. Most of those whose
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parents were engaged in some technical jobs (e.g. garages) wanted to jointhem. Very few intend to study and then use their skills to employ themselves(VET-Iringa, 2003). It would therefore be expected that few trainees havepositive motivation (interest) in self-employment.
One of the key roles of training institutions is to socialize people in spe-cific socially desired directions. It is therefore reasonable to expect studentswho take courses intended to develop their entrepreneurial interest and capa-bilities to have a greater propensity of starting their own businesses.
Environmental differences may determine the opportunities and possibil-ities open to different sets of individuals. This explains the spatial variationin the rate of formation and growth of small businesses in various partsof world as well as within different countries. Environmental factors mayinclude socio-economic structure, the economy, and culture. The economicfactors that are considered responsible in small firm formation include rateof unemployment, information, access to finance, availability of premises,and demand among others. Hence people who have greater access to otheropportunities, including salaried jobs may have less interest in starting theirown businesses compared to those with ready access.
The review of the literature above leads to the following hypotheses whichare tested in this study:
H1: Few VET trainees have interest in starting their own businesses, andwhere this interest exist, the main motivation is economic necessity.
H2: Entrepreneurial inclinations vary by gender; female trainees have lessinterest in business and are fewer ambitions in terms of future growth.
H3: Training in entrepreneurship enhances interest in doing business as wellas growth aspirations.
H4: The higher ones perceived chances of securing a paid job, the less one’sinterest in starting a business.
H5: VET trainees with parents who are self-employed have more interestin self-employment compared to those whose parents are employed insalaried jobs.
Methodology
The study was carried out in Iringa region in central Tanzania. It is a rel-atively remote region with no major urban centres. The region was chosenbecause it has many developed VET Centres. It was deliberately decided toresearch a region outside the main commercial centres of Tanzania, where
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Table 1. Entrepreneurial Inclinations Include the Following Attributes.
Attribute Meaning
Start-up inclinations • Whether and the extent to which one is interested to start ownbusiness
• Whether someone has actually decided to start a business• Whether one will start a business on full-time or part-time
basis
Growth intentions • How big one wishes the business to be certain years afterstarting
Source: Olomi, 2001.
most research activities take place. This was both a descriptive and analyt-ical study employing primary data, which were obtained from structuredquestionnaires administered to final year students of 12 vocational centresin Iringa making a total of 508. In each of the 12 colleges, all students inone trade were included in the sample, the objective being to come up witha heterogeneous sample. Table 2 shows the distribution of respondents bycentre.
A standard semi-structured questionnaire was administered with theassistance of class instructors during class time with the permission of
Table 2. Distribution of Respondents by Training Institution.
Name of VET Centre Frequency Percent
Njombe Folk Development Center 37 7.3Njombe VTC 55 10.8Iringa Regional Vocational Training and Service Center 52 10.2Mafinga Lutheran VET 54 10.6Incomet-Mafinga VTC 19 3.7Mpechi Vocational Training Center 22 4.3Usawa VTC 36 7.1Pawaga VTC 6 1.2St Mariagoreth VTC 76 15.0Uwemba Vocational Training Center VTC 12 2.4Don Bosco VTC 134 26.4Upendo Vocational Training Center 5 1.0
Total 508 100.0
Source: Field data.
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the respective principals of the colleges. All questions were translated toKiswahili, which is a common language to all students. The questionnairewas first pre-tested to 20 trainees. It solicited information on backgroundof the trainees, business start-up inclinations, future growth intentions, etc.The data was coded and analyzed using frequency tables, cross-tabulations,chi-square tests of significance and t-tests.
RESULTS
Profile of the Respondents
Distribution of respondents by gender and area of specialization is shown inTable 3.
The analysis shows that, male trainees are over-represented in carpen-try, electrical, mechanics, masonry, and welding courses all of which aretraditionally male dominated activities. On the other hand, female traineesare over-represented in tailoring and printing courses. Four fifths (81%) ofthe female trainees are in tailoring compared to only 1.7% of male trainees.Chi-square test of significance confirms that these differences are statisti-cally significant at the 5% level. The explanation could be that women andmen have been socialized to prefer certain activities to others.
Figure 1 shows the distribution of the respondents by age.
Table 3. Gender of Respondents Against their Specialization.
Entrepreneurial Inclinations of Vocational Education Students
Age of respondent
403832302928262524232221201918171615
Count
100
80
60
40
20
0
Figure 1. Age Distribution of the Respondents.
A majority of the respondents were between 17 to 23 years old. Theconcentration of the respondents in this age group reflects the nature of VETtrainees, most of whom are primary and ordinary secondary school leaverswho did not have the opportunity for further studies or secure jobs.
Entrepreneurship Courses Taken by the Trainees
Entrepreneurship development is usually defined loosely and sometimes maybe considered to include course related to management, leadership, businessplanning or development of entrepreneurial values and attitudes. Participantswere asked to indicate what kind of subjects or topics related to entrepreneur-ship and small business management they had actually gone through. Thetable below summarises their responses.
Over half of the trainees had undergone a course related to small busi-ness or entrepreneurship, with the largest proportion of these reporting thatthey had done a course related to developing enterprising behaviour. Thereare statistically significant differences between male and female trainees.Among others, a higher proportion of female trainees have attended coursewhich promote enterprising behaviour while a greater proportion of the maletrainees have not attended any relevant course.
Interest and the Intention to Start Own Business
Trainees were asked about the level of their interest to start a business andtheir intention to start such businesses. The responses are shown below.
The table shows that, a majority — about two thirds — are “very inter-ested” to start their own business, whereas only 3% of them are not interested
at all. Gender differences in interest in starting a business are not statisticallysignificant.
It should be noted that one may be interested in doing something, butthis does not mean that one actually intends to do it. At the same time, onecan imagine a situation where people may intend to do something becausethey are compelled to and not because they are interested to do it. Traineeswere asked if they actually intended to start businesses after graduation. Theresponses are summarized in Table 6.
Again about a third reported that they actually intended to start businessafter graduation. Compared to male respondents, a greater proportion offemale trainees intend to start their own businesses. These differences are
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Table 6. Intention to Start Business Against Gender.
statistically significant at the 5% level. Since distribution of the sexes amongthe different trades is gendered, the observation that a greater proportion offemale trainees intend to start businesses could base on differences in thetypes of businesses. Table 7 below analyses intention to start businesses byspecialization.
The results show that there is significant association (p < 0.05) betweenintention to start a business and the type of training. There is no straightfor-ward explanation for these differences. One explanation could be that it iseasier to start micro enterprises related to some trades (tailoring, electrical)and there are already many role models compared to others (e.g. printing).However, this explanation does not apply to some fields which are also rela-tively easy to enter, such as masonry and bricklaying. It is also possible that
Table 7. Intention to Start Business Against Specialization Cross-Tabulation.
Part — time basis for a while andthen quit employment
99 32.8 27.7 0.28 156 30.7
Part time permanently 10 3.3 7.3 0.07 25 4.9Get employed first and start
sometime in the future122 40.4 33.5 0.33 191 37.6
Other 23 7.6 3.9 0.04 31 6.1
Total 302 100 100.0 1.00 508 100.0
Pearson Chi-square test Value df Sig.17.528 4 0.002
the trainees who chose some trades did so after deciding that they would lateremploy themselves. Clearly, more research is needed to unravel the reasonsbehind these differences in preferences by type of training.
How the Business Will be Established
Trainees who reported that they intend to start businesses were asked toindicate how they would start them. As shown in Table 8, only about a fifthplan to start immediately after graduation and focus only on business. Mostof the rest prefer to either start on part-time basis (while employed) and quittheir jobs later.
There is a statistically significant difference between female and maletrainees in terms of how the business will be started (p < 0.05), with femaletrainees expressing more readiness to start immediately and focus on busi-ness from the time they graduate. This may reflect the fewer entry barriersin the kinds of businesses that they express interest in.
Entrepreneurship Training and the Intention to Start OwnBusinesses
In order to ascertain whether entrepreneurship training in VTCs motivatestrainees to start own businesses, respondents were asked whether they hadtaken entrepreneurship courses and if so how these had helped them. Theresponses are shown below.
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Table 9. How Entrepreneurship Courses have Helped.
Response Yes No Total
Count % Count % Count %
It increased my interest to start 243 99.6 1 0.4 244 100Made me decide to start 189 99.5 1 0.5 190 100Increased confidence in my ability to start 308 100 0 0.0 308 100
Virtually all respondents who had taken entrepreneurship coursesreported that the training increased their interest to start businesses, confi-dence in their ability to start as well as made them decide to start businesses.
To further test the effect of entrepreneurship courses, “the extent to whichone actually intended to start own businesses” was cross-tabulated with“whether or not one had attended these courses”. The results are shownbelow.
Interestingly a larger proportion (66%) of those who had not takenentrepreneurship courses intend to start own business compared to 60%of those who have taken the courses. This contradicts what was stated byrespondents who attended these courses. Chi-square test of significance ofthis relationship shows that it is not statistically significant.
To further assess the effect entrepreneurship courses, type of trainingreceived was cross-tabulated with intention to start a business. The results,shown in Table 11 also shows that there are no significant differences in
Table 10. Intention to Start Business and Whether Taken Entrepreneurship Course.
Intention to Start Whether have Taken Entrepreneurship Course Total
Yes No
Count % Count % Count %
Yes 198 60.0 118 66.3 316 62.2Probably 115 34.8 52 29.2 167 32.9Not thought of it 12 3.6 6 3.4 18 3.5No 5 1.5 3 1.7 7 1.4
Total 330 100.0 178 100.0 508 100.0
Pearson Chi-Square Value df Sig.2.057 4 0.725
Source: Field data.
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Table 11. Course Taken and Intention to Start a Business.
Course Taken Intention to Start a Business
Yes Probably No Total
Count % Count % Count % Count %
Business plan 47 32.4 36 41.4 3 23.1 86 35.1Small business
management5 3.4 7 8.0 2 15.4 14 5.7
Enterprisingtendencies
93 64.1 44 50.6 8 61.5 145 59.2
Total 145 100.0 87 100.0 13 100.0 245 100.0
PearsonChi-Square
Value df Sig.
10.226 8 0.250
Source: Field data.
intention to start a business among those who too entrepreneurship coursesof different kinds.
The results imply that entrepreneurship courses have not significantlyinfluenced interest in starting businesses among the students. It might wellbe that trainees taking entrepreneurship courses appreciate the challengesinvolved in starting businesses and hence the fact that they are not over-represented among the group that intend to start own businesses may simplyreflect realism. However, it is also possible that the design or facilitation oflearning in entrepreneurship courses is not sufficiently effective in promotingentrepreneurial spirit and intentions. What is not clear is why trainees whoattend these courses report that they have helped them, while this is notreflected in their own stated aspirations.
Motivation for Starting a Business
Respondents were also asked to state the primary motives for wanting tostart own businesses. Motivational statements which have been developedand validated in the Tanzanian setting were used (see Olomi, 2001). Theresponses are summarised by gender below. Also, t-test was carried out todetermine whether mean differences between female and male respondentsare statistically significant.
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Table 12. Primary Motivation for Wanting to Start Business by Gender.
Motivation Mean t-value df Sig.
Male Female
To have more control over life 4.36 4.30 0.636 405.828 0.525Only way to make a living 4.07 3.86 1.839 417.272 0.067Continue a family tradition 2.88 3.10 −1.828 443.144 0.068To do what I like most 4.10 3.91 1.625 415.595 0.105To supplement income from salary 4.25 4.08 1.766 438.236 0.078To build a large company 4.01 3.62 3.283 372.596 0.001To overcome career barriers 3.38 3.34 0.279 413.202 0.781To follow the example of a person I admire 3.70 3.55 1.165 433.630 0.245To create employment for dependants 3.97 3.68 2.450 404.672 0.015To make more money than would otherwise 3.99 3.62 3.060 403.592 0.002
Source: Field data.
For both sexes, the most important motives are to have control over oneslife and to supplement income from salary!. This is consistent with the obser-vations made earlier that some of the respondents actually planned to starta business on part-time basis, while maintaining a salaried job. The leastimportant reasons for both sexes were to overcome career barriers and tocontinue a family tradition.
In terms of the gender differences, male respondents were significantlymore motivated by the need to “to “build a large company”, “to createemployment for dependants” and “to make more money than would oth-erwise make” compared to their female counterparts. This is consistent withthe understanding that women have been socialised to be less ambitiousthan men. They are therefore less likely to want to develop large entities orinnovative compared to their male counterparts. This has implications fortraining institutions and other socialisation agents.
Many institutions are encouraging students to think of self-employmentas an alternative to salaried employment. The study also sought to establishwhether those who perceived they are less likely to find salaried jobs havegreater interest in starting their own businesses. The results are shown below.
The results in Table 13 shows that, contrary to expectations, there is astatistically significant positive relationship between likelihood of securinga job and both interest and intention to start a business. This means that thosewho feel that they have what it takes to secure a job also believe that theyhave the competencies to start and develop a business, whereas those whodo not feel confident about successfully starting and developing businesses
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Tabl
e13
.Lik
elih
ood
ofSe
curi
nga
Sala
ried
Job
and
Ent
repr
eneu
rial
Incl
inat
ions
.
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ende
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nden
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ndar
dize
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Adj
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aria
ble
Var
iabl
eC
oeffi
cien
tsE
rror
Coe
ffici
ents
sq(B
)(B
eta)
Inte
rest
inst
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ga
busi
ness
(Con
stan
t)1.
310
0.11
411
.528
0.00
0L
ikel
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dof
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nga
job
0.10
60.
036
0.12
82.
908
0.00
40.
014
Inte
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nto
star
tbu
sine
ss(C
onst
ant)
1.24
90.
084
14.8
190.
000
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-02
0.02
70.
112
2.52
80.
012
0.01
2
Sour
ce:F
ield
data
.
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Table 14. Whether Related to Own Discipline and Whether Innovative.
Whether Idea Relates Whether Copyingto Ones Study or Innovating
have deficiencies which are likely to make it harder for them to secure paidjobs as well. This suggests that the view of self-employment as an alternativefor those who cannot secure salaried employment may be untenable.
Types of Businesses Which Trainees Want to Start
On the types of the businesses respondents were planning to start after grad-uation, about 91 per cent of them said that they will start businesses that arerelated to the areas of their specialization (Table 13).
Unfortunately all of the respondents who would start businesses withintheir areas of specialization said that they would only copy what others aredoing (copy-cat). That means they are not innovative.
Family Background and Intention to Start a Business
It was hypothesized that, in line with the literature, trainees whose parentsare engaged in business have been better socialised to the entrepreneurialcareer and will therefore be more likely to express intentions to start theirown businesses. Table 15 below demonstrates that this is indeed the case.
There is a statistically significant association (p < 0.05) between onesfamily background and intention to start a business among the trainees.About three quarters of those whose parents are engaged in business activ-ities state that they intend to start their own businesses compared to only50% of those whose parents have other backgrounds. These findings corrob-orate the long established intergenerational inheritance of enterprise culturetheory. It strengthens the argument for deliberately building entrepreneurialvalues, interests and intentions on the premise that these are made, ratherthan in-born.
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Table 15. Intention to Start Business and Family Background.
Whether Intends to Whether Parents had a BusinessStart a Business
With regard to firm growth, a majority of the respondents have very lowaspirations; only about 10% aspire to develop businesses that employ over10 employees in the first five years. As seen in Table 12, almost 60% aspireto have no more than 4 persons. To analyze gender differences in firm sizeaspiration, aspired number of employees was cross tabulated with gender(Table 16).
The analysis shows that male trainees had higher aspirations for growththan their female counterparts. However the difference is not statisticallysignificant as shown by the results of the chi-square test above. Contraryto expectations, female trainees do not have statistically significant lowerexpectations compared to their male counterparts.
Table 16. Desired Size of the Business in Five Years by Gender.
How Large the Business Male Female Totalwill be in Five Years
Respondents were asked to indicate the extent to which the common barriersto start-up in Tanzania would be a hindrance to them on a five point LikertScale. Analysis of the responses is shown below.
Consistent with previous research, both male and female trainees rateaccess to finance as the most serious impediment, followed by a difficultregulatory environment. Trainees do not consider business skills, attitudeand experience, which are the most debilitating barriers to success in busi-ness as most critical. Female trainees consider experience as a bigger bar-rier compared to their male counterparts, while male counterparts assessedbusiness management skills as a stringer barrier than their female counter-parts. These differences are statistically significant at 5% level. This maybe explained by the earlier observations that male trainees aspire for typesof businesses which may demand better management skills whereas femaletrainees mainly aspire to start businesses which require a lot of technicalexperience (e.g. tailoring)
However, the analysis in Table 18 below shows the percentage of respon-dents in each discipline who indicated that each of the factors given waseither a “major constrain” or a “constrain”.
The analysis shows that a majority of respondents in almost every dis-cipline identified access to finance and/or regulations as a barrier. It is onlyfor printing businesses that a fifth of the respondents identified premises asa critical problem.
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Donath R. Olomi and Rose S. Sinyamule
Tabl
e18
.Per
ceiv
edC
onst
rain
tsby
Fiel
dof
Stud
y.
Car
pent
ry&
Mas
onry
&W
eldi
ng&
Join
ery
Ele
ctri
cal
Tailo
ring
Mec
hani
csB
rick
layi
ngF
abri
cati
onP
rint
ing
Tota
l
Cou
nt%
Cou
nt%
Cou
nt%
Cou
nt%
Cou
nt%
Cou
nt%
Cou
nt%
Cou
nt%
Acc
ess
4720
5421
.110
318
.810
319
.715
22.7
1816
.29
20.0
312
61.4
tofin
ance
Reg
ulat
ions
5322
.648
18.8
119
21.7
9317
.810
15.2
2421
.610
22.2
357
70.3
Pre
mis
es36
15.3
3513
.780
14.6
8315
.98
12.1
1715
.39
20.0
268
52.8
Skill
s37
15.7
4316
.873
13.3
8917
.011
16.7
1816
.26
13.3
277
54.5
Atti
tude
3514
.942
16.4
8415
.385
16.3
1116
.719
17.1
715
.628
355
.7E
xper
ienc
e27
11.5
3413
.390
16.4
6913
.211
16.7
1513
.54
8.9
250
49.2
Tota
l23
510
0.0
256
100.
054
910
0.0
522
100.
066
100.
011
110
0.0
4510
0.0
508
100.
0
Sour
ce:F
ield
data
.
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Entrepreneurial Inclinations of Vocational Education Students
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Conclusions
The study has established that there is a lot of interest among VocationalEducation Trainees to start and run their own businesses. A majority ofthem report that they actually intend to start their own businesses sometimeafter graduation although only a third intend to focus only on business. Thisis very encouraging for vocational training institutions as well as policymakers and other actors interested in supporting them to start and developtheir own businesses. It has also been established that the interest to startbusinesses varies by gender. Contrary to expectations, female trainees arenot disproportionately less interested in self-employment than their malecounterparts. This could be because they are concentrated in tailoring coursesfor which business entry barriers are minimal.
There is no solid evidence that training in entrepreneurship actuallyenhances learners’ interest in and intention to start businesses. This raisesquestions about the content, methodology and quality of learning facilitatorsin these courses.
The primary reasons for interest in self-employment are to have greatercontrol over one’s life and to be able to meet basic needs. However, femaletrainees put less weight on traditional success measures, such as growth andmoney, compared to their female counterparts.
Again, contrary to expectations, those who are less likely to get jobs do nothave greater interest in starting their own businesses. Instead, the study findsthe opposite to be the case; a statistically significant positive relationshipbetween interest in business (and intention to start) and perceived chance ofgetting a job. This means that it is unrealistic to expect “those who cannotfinds jobs to be the ones to employ themselves”. Apparently, those whofeel they are unlikely to secure jobs do not have what it takes to succeed inbusiness.
Family background seems to have a strong influence of trainees’ inten-tions to do business. This corroborates the view that socialiasation plays akey role in shaping entrepreneurial motivation and behaviour. It also meansthat efforts to develop entrepreneurial attitudes among students can pay off,as long as these are structured in a way which ensures effective socialisation.
The choice of business activities again shows that trainees are not readyto innovate as virtually all want to go for “copy cat” businesses. Thisincludes those who have taken entrepreneurship courses. This suggests that
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Donath R. Olomi and Rose S. Sinyamule
entrepreneurship courses and the learning processes in general have notmanaged to develop an innovative mindset among the trainees.
Almost all trainees aspire to have micro enterprises, even five years afterstarting their businesses, suggesting that their growth/entrepreneurial moti-vations are rather low. This suggests a need for entrepreneurship trainingto develop growth motivation, and therefore something needs to be doneabout it.
Trainees perceive access to finance and regulatory framework as themain barriers and accord attitudes and skills less weight. Interestingly,there are gender differences in the weight accorded to barriers with womentrainees considering limited experience as a stronger barrier than their malecounterparts.
Recommendations
Based of the findings of the study, a number of recommendations are in orderfor vocational education and training to be able to contribute effectively in thedevelopment of a competitive and dynamic private sector, which is essentialfor sustainable reduction of poverty and economic growth.
First of all there is need to reassess the content, approach and competen-cies around entrepreneurship training within the VTCs in order to identifyareas where improvements are needed to make the course more effective indeveloping interest and commitment to start businesses, innovation capacityand growth seeking behaviour among learners.
Secondly, it is recommended that special attention should be paid tofemale trainees in VETs, to de-socialise them from taking a gendered per-spective of life in terms of what they want to achieve in life, including thetype and size of the businesses they wish to build.
Finally policy makers and educators should stop considering self-employment as an alternative for those who are unable, on account of capac-ity, to secure salaried jobs. Instead, efforts should be made to develop peoplewith competitive capacity who are prepared to take responsibility for theirown lives. It is among these able people that successful entrepreneurs willemerge and not among mediocre.
Limitations and Future Research
The study was limited to only VTCs in Iringa region. The results, therefore,may not be generalizable to the entire population of schools and colleges oreven VTCs trainees. It is therefore essential to do similar studies in otherregions as well as other types of colleges and schools. It would be useful
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Entrepreneurial Inclinations of Vocational Education Students
to examine the reasons as to why entrepreneurship education among VETstudents does not seem to enhance interest in self-employment. It would beuseful to do research to shed more light on perceptions of barriers to startand develop businesses, including gender differences.
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