The benefits of exposing post-secondary students to entrepreneurship training in Trinidad and Tobago

This study contributes to the fields of Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and entrepreneurship education, with a focus on Small Island Developing States (SIDS) such as Trinidad and Tobago (T&T). TVET is presented as a critical pillar for socio-economic development and a pathway to address unemployment among youth. The research investigates how exposing post-secondary TVET students (PSTVETS) to entrepreneurship education influences their interest in pursuing entrepreneurial careers. The purpose is twofold: (1) to examine the relationship between exposure to entrepreneurship education and students’ entrepreneurial intentions, and (2) to propose an entrepreneurship education model that can be integrated into PSTVET institutions to enhance outcomes. The study is situated across four PSTVET institutions in T&T and underscores the importance of embedding entrepreneurship within TVET to support human capital development and economic transformation.

The literature underscores entrepreneurship as a vital driver of national development and economic growth (e.g., Dhaliwal, 2016), including its role in addressing youth unemployment (McCallum, 2019). Entrepreneurship education can instill survival competencies and entrepreneurial qualities (Gamede, 2017), and is associated with increased entrepreneurial aspirations. The paper adopts Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) as the theoretical framework to understand how cultural and social environments shape entrepreneurial intentions (Ajzen, 1991; Liñán et al., 2011; Liñán & Santos, 2007). The TPB informs analysis of students’ intentions relative to institutional plans and environments within PSTVETI. International exemplars emphasize systemic approaches: Singapore’s ITE as an alternative pathway within a national economic strategy; initiatives in Bangladesh, Serbia, and Malaysia integrate business and entrepreneurship training into TVET curricula. In T&T, policy efforts have aimed to support SMEs and employment through entrepreneurship (Ramkissoon-Babwah, 2012), yet a coherent entrepreneurship education framework is lacking. The review positions entrepreneurship education within TVET as instrumental for skills-based entrepreneurship and national development, identifies gaps in SIDS-focused research, and motivates the present study in T&T.

Design: Mixed-methods with triangulation, combining quantitative (survey with inferential statistics) and qualitative (content analysis, interviews, focus groups) components to assess exposure to entrepreneurship education and its relationship with entrepreneurial interest among PSTVET students. Setting and institutions: Four post-secondary TVET institutions (PSTVETI) distributed across Trinidad and Tobago. Institutional offerings vary; PSTVETI 1 and 2 include Life Skills with minimal entrepreneurship content; PSTVETI 3 integrates entrepreneurship within hospitality programs; PSTVETI 4 offers an optional 144-hour entrepreneurship course (Micro-Entrepreneurship), alongside various TVET programs for diverse learners. Participants and sampling: Student population N=7176. Target sample 600; completed surveys n=446 (74.33% response rate). Cluster sampling was used due to the nationwide distribution and difficulty of exhaustive participant lists. For qualitative data, purposeful sampling targeted information-rich cases among staff, teachers, administrators, and the regulatory body’s executive. Data collection: - Survey: Administered in person using a questionnaire with Likert-type, rating scale, multiple-choice, and semantic differential items. Focus areas: demographics; students’ interest in entrepreneurship; institutions’ preparedness to train entrepreneurs; and systems supporting entrepreneurship. - Content analysis: Documents and communications (informal discussions, calls, emails, messages) with instructors, curriculum officers, and administrators to understand curricula and entrepreneurship content across institutions. - Interviews and focus groups: 25 semi-structured sessions (∼30 minutes each), recorded and transcribed, involving staff from the four institutions and the TVET regulatory body’s executive officer. Data saturation guided cessation of interviews. Data analysis: - Quantitative: SPSS used for logistic regression and Spearman’s correlation. Internal reliability for the exposure scale (14 items) assessed with Cronbach’s alpha. - Qualitative: Thematic analysis for interviews/focus groups; content analysis for curricula review. Reliability: Cronbach’s alpha for the 14-item exposure scale = 0.937 (acceptable/excellent internal consistency). Ethics/data: Data not publicly available due to privacy; can be requested from the corresponding author.

- Positive association between exposure and entrepreneurial interest: Logistic regression for 446 students showed the full model was significant versus constant-only (chi-square = 9.887, df = 4, p = 0.042), correctly classifying 81.2% of cases. Hosmer–Lemeshow test p = 0.362 indicated acceptable model fit. The Wald statistic showed exposure to entrepreneurship training significantly contributed to predicting entrepreneurial interest (p = 0.005), Exp(B) ≈ 1.025 (95% CI: 1.007–1.042). - Correlation: Spearman’s rho between exposure to entrepreneurship training and entrepreneurial interest was positive and significant (rho = 0.132, N = 439, p = 0.006, two-tailed). - Reliability: Cronbach’s alpha for the exposure scale (14 items) = 0.937, indicating strong internal consistency. - Curricular exposure varies across institutions: Content analysis indicated PSTVETI 1 and 2 emphasize technical subjects with only minimal entrepreneurship content via life skills and lack structured entrepreneurship teaching; PSTVETI 3 and 4 include structured entrepreneurship/business subjects (e.g., Accounting, Customer Care, Economics, Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Management), though in some cases optional. - Qualitative insights indicate limited entrepreneurship culture/framework in PSTVETI: Educators reported entrepreneurship training as minimal, informal, or non-existent. Students expressed high interest in entrepreneurship (e.g., 78% indicating intent to start a business after leaving school), suggesting unmet demand for formal training. - Institutional climate: Thematic analysis identified hurdles—attrition, absence of industrial training, lack of regulatory functions, leadership issues, poorly structured teaching/lack of entrepreneurial training, stigma, and poor quality of trainees—and resource constraints—capital, machinery/materials, physical infrastructure—as barriers to implementing entrepreneurship education. - International comparisons highlight gaps: Compared to Bangladesh, Serbia, and Malaysia, T&T PSTVETI show less systematic integration of entrepreneurship into TVET curricula.

The findings support the hypothesis that greater exposure to entrepreneurship education is associated with increased interest in entrepreneurial endeavors among PSTVET students. Quantitative analyses (logistic regression and Spearman’s correlation) demonstrated a statistically significant, positive relationship between exposure and entrepreneurial interest, indicating that structured entrepreneurship training within TVET can foster skills-based entrepreneurship. Qualitative data revealed an absence of robust entrepreneurship education frameworks in two of the four institutions and limited, often optional exposure in the others, despite substantial student interest. Institutional hurdles and resource constraints impede effective implementation. These results underscore the significance of embedding entrepreneurship within TVET curricula to align with national development goals, respond to youth unemployment, and leverage TVET’s role in socio-economic transformation. The study’s insights are particularly relevant for SIDS contexts, where targeted integration of entrepreneurship education can produce tangible benefits in human capital development and enterprise creation.

This study demonstrates that exposing post-secondary TVET students in Trinidad and Tobago to entrepreneurship education is positively associated with their interest in starting businesses. It contributes original insights on TVET–entrepreneurship integration within a SIDS context, identifies institutional and systemic barriers, and proposes the need for a structured entrepreneurship education model integrated across TVET levels. The authors recommend embedding a progressive Entrepreneurship Educational Fundamentals (EEF) sequence (e.g., EEF 1 at lower levels focusing on basic law, financial management, personal development, entrepreneurial identity; EEF 2 at higher levels covering advanced entrepreneurship and micro-business management) as mandatory across TVET levels, alongside broader educational system integration beginning from primary school to cultivate an entrepreneurial culture. Future directions include: developing and piloting a comprehensive entrepreneurship education framework for TVET in T&T; evaluating implementation fidelity and outcomes; strengthening policy alignment (skills policy and youth policy) to support entrepreneurship in TVET; and expanding research on entrepreneurship education within SIDS to inform evidence-based policy and practice.