The National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), in collaboration with the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), has commenced validation of the National Diploma (ND) Entrepreneurship curriculum.
The four-day national critique and validation workshop was designed to review the curriculum and ensure it equips students with practical skills required to establish, manage and grow businesses.
Speaking at the opening of the workshop on Monday in Kaduna, Executive Secretary of NBTE, Prof. Idris Bugaje, said the review must address what would become of students after completing the ND programme.
Bugaje said the workshop should determine suitable higher education pathways for ND Entrepreneurship graduates seeking to further their studies.
He said participants should establish whether graduates could progress into Higher National Diploma (HND) programmes such as Business Administration or require a dedicated HND Entrepreneurship programme.
“These are questions that this workshop has to answer,” Bugaje said, urging participants to ensure the curriculum produced meaningful outcomes.
He said the ND Entrepreneurship programme was distinct from Business Administration and Marketing, although elements of those disciplines could feature in its content.
According to him, entrepreneurship education must enable young Nigerians to understand how to establish businesses from scratch and develop them into sustainable ventures.
Bugaje said the curriculum should also expose students to financial management, business operations and other critical components required for successful enterprise development.
He explained that the national critique and validation exercise was necessary to examine the curriculum critically and strengthen its relevance to the country’s economic needs.
The NBTE boss expressed appreciation to SMEDAN for supporting the exercise and described the partnership as important to developing a robust ND Entrepreneurship programme.
Bugaje urged the resource persons and other participants to contribute meaningfully to the deliberations, saying their expertise would shape the quality and relevance of the final curriculum.
He formally declared the workshop open and expressed confidence that the deliberations would produce a programme capable of supporting Nigeria’s entrepreneurship development.
The SMEDAN Director-General, Mr Charles Odii represented by Dr Funto Babarinde said the agency was committed to strengthening technical and vocational education through strategic collaboration.
Odii said validating quality frameworks would help ensure that Nigeria’s technical and vocational education system met global benchmarks while responding to local industry requirements.
He said the workshop provided an opportunity for experts to debate, critique and formalise key educational instruments that could influence the future of entrepreneurship training.
According to him, SMEDAN remained confident that the outcome would empower a new generation of skilled professionals, innovators and entrepreneurs across Nigeria.
He said the agency looked forward to a productive four-day engagement that would strengthen the relationship between education providers and enterprise development institutions.
Prof. Dahiru Sani, Founder and Rector of Kaduna Business School, said entrepreneurship education should move beyond classroom theories to equip students with practical competencies.
Sani, a collaborative partner and certified trainer under SMEDAN’s Inspire, Create, Start and Scale (ICSS) framework, said entrepreneurship training must prepare students for the realities of starting and sustaining businesses.
He said curriculum development should reflect the needs of entrepreneurs, employers, financial institutions and the wider economy.
According to him, students require practical exposure to opportunity identification, business planning, financing, innovation, marketing and enterprise management.
Sani urged participants to ensure that the revised curriculum remained flexible enough to accommodate emerging businesses, technologies and changing market conditions.
He said stronger collaboration between institutions such as NBTE, SMEDAN and industry practitioners would help bridge the gap between entrepreneurship education and enterprise development.
Sani expressed optimism that the workshop would produce a curriculum capable of nurturing innovative graduates who could create employment and contribute to Nigeria’s economic growth.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the stakeholders are expected to make recommendations that would strengthen the curriculum’s content, improve progression opportunities and enhance its practical relevance to Nigeria’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.
