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EFFECT OF PERSONALITY TRAITS ON SELF-EMPLOYMENT INTENTION AMONGST STUDENTS IN TECHNICAL, VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING IN KENYA

 

David Maina Kahando

School of Business and Management Studies,

The Technical University of Kenya

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Dr Esther Nyambura Mungai

School of Business and Management Studies,

The Technical University of Kenya

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CITATION: Kahando, D., M. & Mungai, E., Y. (2018). Effect of Personality Traits on Self-Employment Intention amongst Students in Technical, Vocational Education and Training in Kenya. International Journal of Arts and Entrepreneurship. Vol. 7 (7) pp 1 – 25.

ABSTRACT

 

Entrepreneurship has been identified as a crucial activity to ensure economic growth and employment worldwide. However, this has not been effective in most developing countries. Kenya as an example of such countries, has a high rate of unemployment among the young graduates emerging from universities and tertiary institutions. One of the government challenges is how to change the mindset of students to venture into business rather than seeking jobs. This study thus examined the relationship between personality traits, entrepreneurship education and how these variables influence self-employment intention among Technical and Vocational Education and Training institutions in Kenya. The study objectives were to determine the effect of personality traits and the moderating effect of entrepreneurship education on students’ self-employment intentions. The study adopted a survey research design with mixed approaches. Self-administered questionnaire was developed and administered to 400 diploma engineering finalist students sampled from 41 public Institutions spread in the country using multistage and simple random sampling approach. The data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics with the help of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences 20 software. Pearson’s Coefficient Correlation was used to examine reliability of data. Factor analysis was conducted to investigate the internal structure among the set of variables. Multiple linear regressions analysis was used to examine the effect of independent variables on the dependent variable. The results of findings showed that there was a positive and significant relationship between personality traits and self-employment intentions. The results also showed that entrepreneurship education enhances the personality traits and thus strongly influence self-employment intentions.

 

Key words: Personality Traits, Self-Employment Interntions, Entrepreneurship Education

 

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