BREAKING THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CEILING AND SEIZING OPPORTUNITIES FROM ENTREPRENEURSHIP: A CASE OF YOUTH GRADUATES IN RWANDA

Abstract

Entrepreneurship holds greater potential to address youth employment in many countries. The strategic focus on empowering youth with skills and finance to startup up businesses enterprises is yet to yield the much-needed returns. This article leverages on a study which explored the psychological preparedness of the youth towards entrepreneurship with focus on ascertaining whether the youth exhibit the desired entrepreneurship traits entrepreneurship. Secondly, the analysis established the effect of the youth entrepreneurship traits on youth entrepreneurship. Personal Trait Theory and The Need for Achievement Theory guided this research. A descriptive and correlational research design was adopted for this study. Empirical evidence derives from data collected on a randomly selected sample of 169 youth graduates in Technical and Vocational (TVET) in Kamonyi District Rwanda. A triangulation with the views of key stakeholders in promotion of skills development for entrepreneurship was done. For qualitative data, the initial stage was a quick analysis of transcribed notes. Findings reveal that, despite the significance of the youth’s psychological mindset to entrepreneurship, they lack desirable entrepreneur traits i.e personal traits and motivational attributes to venture into businesses. Their mindset remains tuned to searching for jobs which are scarce or for which they lack a competitive advantage. This research concluded that while the highlighted personal traits and motivational attributes are significant in fostering entrepreneurship, they were found lacking among the majority of youth studied. This article provides an alternative dimension of empowering youth beyond the technical and soft skills acquired from vocational training. Interventions to empower youth for entrepreneurship and employment need to focus on orienting them psychologically to gain entrepreneur traits. This study recommends youth entrepreneurship programs to put emphasis on training youth in positive entrepreneurship traits. Training programs need to encourage youth to develop entrepreneurship traits among the youth besides, the formal skills acquired from school.