A study of entrepreneurial intentions of students at FET colleges in South Africa.

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of the study is to measure entrepreneurial intentions of students in their last year of study in Further Education and Training institutions (FETs) in South Africa. The study explored the impact of the following aspects on EI: personal backgrounds (gender, study discipline, and entrepreneurial family backgrounds); geographical location; and the self-assessed supportiveness of the contextual environment. Lastly, the strength of association between antecedents to entrepreneurial intentions and EI itself were also explored. Design: A questionnaire was administered to 360 final-year students undertaking technical and entrepreneurship-related studies at FETs in four different provinces in South Africa. Regression, Stepwise regression, ANOVA, t-test, and correlation matrix analyses were conducted to test the proposed relationships. Findings: FET students generally exhibit high levels of entrepreneurial intentions. Gender, study discipline and geographic location have no direct influence on entrepreneurial intentions. Entrepreneurial family background, however, exerts a significant influence on entrepreneurial intentions. Furthermore, conviction has the strongest association with entrepreneurial intentions compared with the other antecedents that were tested, that is, general attitudes, image of entrepreneurship and FET supportiveness. Research limitations: The use of cross-sectional non-experimental design does not allow for conclusions to be drawn regarding causality. Only five FETs participated in the study; therefore, the generalisability of the findings to all FETs nationally is limited. Practical implications: The study indicates high levels of entrepreneurial intentions in circumstances where literature has found the opposite findings. It therefore becomes critical to find integrated teaching methods that take into account the South African environment in order to harness the high entrepreneurial intentions of students.