Graduates Need Entrepreneurial Skills for Socio-Economic Well-Being - Essay Sample

Introduction

The discussion supports that graduates need entrepreneurial skills and mindsets, which are paramount to the creation of new business and development of existing business, all of which are critical to social and economic well-being in our modern society. In the world today, entrepreneurship is becoming one of the promising employers for graduate students and professionals. Besides, developing and developed countries are prioritizing entrepreneurship because it's a fundamental building block for economies, handles the poverty level, and facilitates job creation (Ndururi & Mukulu, 2015). The business environment is increasingly becoming turbulent. Entrepreneurial skills deficiency is one of the causes of unsustainable businesses. As such, the development of entrepreneurial knowledge and a positive business attitude by graduates is an integral part of dealing with the current challenges facing businesses today. The report examines entrepreneurship as an alternative employment opportunity for graduates, entrepreneurial knowledge impacts both new and existing businesses, and entrepreneurial skills and mindset enhances graduates' employability in the corporate world.

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Defining what entrepreneurship is and who is an entrepreneur is a crucial step of understanding why do graduates should have the required knowledge and skills to start new endeavors and support the existing businesses. Entrepreneurship is the readiness and capability of an individual to create a business idea, initiate a venture from the idea generated, and efficiently manage to earn profitability or for a social Couse (Rahman et al., 2017). Also, entrepreneurship is the personal experience from life-wide and life-long in collaboration with the formal education for creating meaningful opportunities to meet specific needs in society for a reward. The person initiating the process of entrepreneurship is the entrepreneur. On the same line of argument, it is paramount to highlight what is the entrepreneurial education (EE). The concept of teaching EE dates back in 1973s in Japan and later spreading to colleges and universities in the US and across the world (Loboda et al., 2018). EE is the aspect of enhancing attitudes, capabilities, skills, mindset, and behavior of a person to improve innovation creativity, idea generation, venture start-up. In simple terms, EE is the act by the relevant stakeholders, such as educators and administrators, to overcome the obstacles facing the business environment today. The fundamental purpose of EE is to change the culture, system, and behaviors to impact ventures.

Entrepreneurship provides alternative employment opportunities for graduates and youths. Entrepreneurship is a potential source of livelihood for graduates and youthful population in general. Graduates in second and third world countries are suffering, hoping to get formal jobs, which most economies are unable to create (Olowe, 2009). The number of jobless graduates in these countries expands with the increase in a number of youths completing institutions of higher learning (Yojana., S. 2014). Notwithstanding that entrepreneurship is an alternative way of earning a leaving, a lot of graduates are languishing in poverty due to unfulfilled expectations, crushed hope, and failure to think otherwise. Jobless graduates denote a wasted resource, as their skills and competences go unutilized in the development of the economy and their well-being (Adawo & Atan, 2013).

Currently, entrepreneurship continues to be a significant employer for young people as they aspire to become managers of their ventures. In developing and developed countries, youths are engaging in entrepreneurship as a way of dealing with unemployment. In most of the African countries, the high unemployment rate is motivating policymakers to think of the alternative means for dealing with the menace. Entrepreneurship is one of the best mechanisms for job creation in countries where demand for labor is growing at a slower rate compared with the number of graduates leaving colleges and universities across the globe (Bustamam et al., 2015). Entrepreneurship is becoming an alternative source of employment for graduates to supplement a few formal employments available in the job market.

Since the financial crisis of 2018, it has become challenging for many graduates to access employment in the European Union and the OECD region (Green, 2013). Policy makers and governments should strategically resolve the issue of joblessness among graduates through facilitating self-employment. Though the level of unemployment by people with a bachelor's degree and more is reducing gradually, it still draws a lot of attention to the appropriate measures to resolve the challenge require implementation. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (2019) highlights that the unemployment rate for people with at least a degree by August 2018 was 2.1%, which is a reduction from 2.4% in 2017. As a result of graduates' unemployment, the overall jobless in the US by 2018 was 3.9% (The US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2019). Given the looming unemployment rate by graduates across the globe, it is high time to motivates graduates and youths in general to evaluates alternative means of earning a livelihood.

One of the credible sources of jobs is self-employment. The creation of private businesses is changing the employment patterns across the globe (Gamede & Uleanya, 2018). In developing countries, graduates are moving to urban centers searching for greener pastures. Primarily, the high population in urban areas is due to the perception that urban centers contain more job opportunities than it is in rural areas (Gamede & Uleanya, 2018). With the right entrepreneurial mind, graduates can start ventures in their locality without necessarily moving to town and cities. However, graduates lack entrepreneurial mindset because they are devoid of the relevant knowledge to creating their ventures.

In the United Kingdom, pay by gender continues to widen (Adams, 2019). Government data reveals that for each year between 210-2017, the pay for males with an undergraduate degree surpasses that of females (Adams, 2019). In 2014 and 2015, the difference in salary between males and females was $2900, with females earning a mean salary of PS24100 compared with PS29000 made by men (Adams, 2019). The gap continued to expand in 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 economic years by PS3300 and PS3600, respectively (Adams, 2019).

Entrepreneurial skills and mindset impact the growth and development of both new and existing enterprises (Neneh, 2012). Both new and existing businesses require entrepreneurial knowledge to survival their worth rivals. The success and sustainability of the business establishment require a certain level of managerial skills for competitiveness (Ruhara & Kayitana, 2018). Students should and graduates in particular should not underestimate the impact of entrepreneurial skills in developing sustainable ventures. Starting a competitive endeavor requires innovative and creative personnel who can capitalize on the business opportunity and make it unique from others.

Entrepreneurial mindset is crucial for the success of ventures in challenging business environments. According to Neneh (2012), highlight that there are two different levels on mind-sets, fixed mind-set, and growth mindset. Individuals with a fixed mindset believe that capabilities, talents, and intelligence are constant and unchanged. On the other hand, an incremental mindset is the one characterized by learning, room for improvement, trying new techniques, and seeking assistance (Neneh, 20102). Entrepreneurial education improves graduate's mind-set and makes them dynamic when approaching or dealing with different business situations. It implies that lack of entrepreneurial skills and mindset is the root cause of business failure in this dynamic world. Most successful entrepreneur possess an incremental mindset because survival in the ever-changing business environment requires a person capable of approaching complex business challenges in different ways. Establishing and maintaining a competitive venture requires and depends on an entrepreneurial mindset, which is the growth mind-set (Neneh, 2012).

The identification of challenges is the start of the entrepreneurship. As such, entrepreneurial skills and mindset is a prerequisite for graduates to start and grow stable ventures. Entrepreneurial education impacts mindset positive and facilitates creativity, innovation, and risk-taking. Entrepreneurship education equips graduates with a comprehensive set of skills for dealing with complex conditions during the running of their ventures. Besides, entrepreneurial training is the source of management competence (Salome et al., 2012). The most significant challenge facing entrepreneurs is the lack of management skills (Salome et al., 2012). Managerial skills add technique, and conceptual know how to turn an idea to a reality. Also, it is vital for the organization of the organization's resources to realize the set objective. Graduates with entrepreneur skills and mindset to develop and grow ventures from scratch to outstanding businesses.

Starting ventures is a way of reducing the pay gap between graduates and professionals. Businesses are sources of income to owners, and therefore they tend to reduce the wealth inequality among graduates and youths. The pay gap and the overall income inequality in the UK is not something to assume. According to the statistics released by the Office of National Statistics, UK (2019), the pay gap in the UK currently stands at 8.9%, with men receiving better payments than women. The pay and income gap will continue until there are adequate measures put in place to empower graduates and youths to find alternative means of earning additional income. One of the approaches to reduce wealth gap is encouraging graduates to find ways of earning extra income apart from their main source. Business income adds to the annual aggregate income and contributes positively to the total wealth of a person. However, graduates cannot be successful in new entrepreneurship if they fall short of the fundamental skills for creating a successful entity. Graduates needs to attend entrepreneurship programs to help them acquire a positive attitude towards establishing sustainable establishments.

Entrepreneurial skills are paramount for existing businesses. The corporate world is the largest source of employment for graduates and specialists. Owners of the existing enterprises require graduates with entrepreneurial mind-set to help those firms attain their strategic goals. Unfortunately, many of the graduate recruits do not possess the necessary business skills to make them competitive in the job market. A significant number of employers feel that there is a mismatch between what graduates have and the employability requirements. Apart from having academic skills, employers look for entrepreneurial skills and mindset, which is critical for communication, teamwork, and problem-solving. Lack of these ideal skills make a significant number of graduates remain unemployed (Bustamam et al., 2015). Graduates without entrepreneurial skills are devoid of soft skills such as problem-solving competence that employers are after when recruiting graduates to take-up different positions in their existing businesses (Bustamam et al., 2015). Entrepreneurial skills and mind-set help students to develop commercial awareness, networking ability, the capability to complete a deal, negotiations competence, persuasive expertise, and creative and innovative thinking knowledge (Bustamam et al., 2015).

The entrepreneurship skills and mindset are of paramount significance to graduates to survive the turbulent wo...