Unlocking Zimbabwe’s global competitiveness through compulsory entrepreneurial education: Evidence from Chinhoyi University of Technology

Zimbabwe’s pathetic position on world global competitiveness rankings calls for the need to strategically position the country for economic leadership. The provision of the CUT Act (2001) prescribing the mentoring of entrepreneurial graduates is taken in this research as an agent for unlocking Zimbabwe’s potential for global competitiveness, through the strengthening of the pillars of global competitiveness; hence the intention of this study was to explore the success of CUT’s entrepreneurial education- for- all policy in converting prospective job seekers into aggressive entrepreneurs. First semester and finalist students were identified to ascertain pre and postlearning entrepreneurial attitudes, perceptions and intentions. The research addresses the essence of integrating entrepreneurship into the Zimbabwean education system as a tool for unlocking the country’s potential for global competitiveness. This study found that compulsory entrepreneurial education at CUT is currently failing to transform students’ entrepreneurial attitudes, perceptions and intentions to some reasonable extent. Students’ satisfaction with the entrepreneurship course in terms of course materials, teaching methods and achievement of expected learning outcomes is low. Basing on the findings, an integrated model for sustainable compulsory entrepreneurial education across the Zimbabwean education system is developed and recommended to for adoption in the Zimbabwean context.