Agriculture teachers’ importance and competency levels in developing students’ entrepreneurial competencies in Eswatini

Abstract

The main aim of the study was to determine the importance and competence levels of high school agriculture teachers to impart entrepreneurship skills to learners in the Kingdom of Eswatini. The study was a descriptive survey conducted in two phases. Phase I (semi-structured interviews) identified twenty (20) entrepreneurial skills used for Phase II (survey). A census study of all 290 agriculture teachers (modern and pre-vocational) was conducted. Questionnaire was used to collect data from 227 agriculture teachers. Cronbach alpha was used to establish the internal consistency of the questionnaire to be 0.89. Content and face validity was established by a panel of experts. Data collected was analyzed using means and standard deviations, whilst Borich's Model was used to identify entrepreneurial skills that agriculture teachers needed for in-service training. Findings revealed all 20 identified entrepreneurial skills as important; however, teachers indicated competence in six entrepreneurial skills and incompetence in 14 entrepreneurial skills which were ranked by the Borich's model as training need areas. It was concluded that agriculture teachers were not adequately trained in the entrepreneurial skills; therefore a need for in-service training in the 14 identified entrepreneurial skills. It was recommended that the institution for agriculture teachers pre-service training review the curriculum in entrepreneurship to focus more on building competency of teachers in the entrepreneurial skills training need areas; and agriculture teachers should be given opportunities and support needed to participate in capacity building workshops.