CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to the study

Education certainly determines the quality of an individual's life. Education
improves one's knowledge, skills and develops the personality and attitude. Most
noteworthy, Education affects the chances of employment for people. A highly
educated individual is probably very likely to get gainfully employed or be self
employed. Education, a fundamental source of human capital, provides general
human capital such as general search skills, foresight, imaginaton, computational
and communication skills, as well as specific skills and knowledge (Parker,2009),
which are pre-requisites to the specific human capital associated with on-the-job
training. A substancial body of research investigates the self-employed as
enterpreneurs, using self-employment as an observable category which, albeit
imperfectly, identifies the stock of entreprenuerial talents in the economy. This
map shows that basic human capital is constantly necessary to equip individuals
with he skills they need to be self-employed such as the ability to perceive
opportunities,raise capital, expand a business and so on.

The term "Human Capital" as defined by the Oxford Dictionary is the skills,
knowledge and experience possessed by an individual or population, viewed in
terms of their value or cost to an organisation or country. "Human capital
development" is the process of improving an organisation's employee
performance , capabilities and resources. On the other hand, "Self Employment" is
defined as the state of working for oneself as a freelance or the owner of a
business rather for a employer, while "Self employment career intentions has
been defined in different ways; as the intention to start a new business (Zhao,
Hills, and Seibert,2005), the intention to own a business (Crant 1996), or the
intentions to be self-employed (Doughlas and Shepherd 2002).

The human capital which is the skills and knowledge acquired by an individual helps in
determining the self employment career intention of an individual. Education has a fundamenta
role to play in human capital development, the growth and development of an individual
depends on a well-educated and adequately skilled human capital that is capable of applying
vision, knowledge and creativity to their economic activities.
Industrial work experience helps to determine the relationship between human capital
development and self employment career intentions among students in the university. It helps i
preparing and exposing students to skills training programe and experience needed for them to
be self employed and be able to face the world of work.
Enterpreneurial experience as a human capital development scheme helps in influencing
the self employment career intentions of an individual. Enterprenuerial career is a process of
understanding your customers needs, build products that customers desire and validate viabilty
It will provide you with all the tools and techniques to understand the customer better, validate
assumptions and build products that customers desire. This programe helps individuals develop
their ability to generate ideas and turn them into action. They learn how to work in a team, take
initiative and accept responsibilty. They experience what it means to manage a real enterprise,
understand how economics and finance contribute to the project's success. They apply maths,
science, language, writing, technological or specialized skills in a practical way which help
students determine their self employment career intentions.
Human potential helps to determine the relationship between human capital development
and self employment career intentions. Early conceptions shows that the full potential of any
person was innate in that person from before birth, possibly from the moment of their
conception. Human potential is the capacityfor humans to improve themselves through
studying, training, and practice to reach limit of their ability to develop aptitudes and skills.
Statement of the problem
To investigate wether the accumulation of human capital development will help to influence
the self eployment career intentions of an individual. Industrial work experience, enterprenueria
experience, potential ability helps in determining the relationship between human capital
development and self employment career intentions among english education students in
benson idahosa university.
Purpose of the Study
The main purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between human capital
development and self employment career intentions among english education students in
benson idahosa university. Specifically, the objectives of the study shall be:
1. to determine the influence of industrial work experience on the human capital development
and self employment career intentions among english education students in benson idahosa
university.
2. to determine the influence of enterpreneurial experience on the human capital development
and self employmnt career intentions among english education students in benson idahosa
university.