Al-Hikmah University Journal

The study examined the entrepreneurship skills needed by Business Education Students to launch and operate SMEs in Kwara State. Two research questions were raised and answered for the study and two null hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significant. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The population of the study comprised of 449 Business Education students in Kwara State. There was no sample and smpling procedure because the target population was small. A four-point scale questionnaire was used for data collection. The instrument was face-validated by four experts from the Department of Business Education, faculty of Education, Al-Hikmah University, Ilorin. The data collected from the respondents was analyzed using Cronbach Alpha to determine the internal consistency of items and reliability of the instrument and a reliability coefficient of 0.88 was obtained. The data collected from the respondents, were analyzed using mean and standard deviation. The mean was used to answer the research questions raised, the standard deviation was used to determine the extent to which the responses deviated from the mean, while t-test was used to test the null hypotheses formulated for the study at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed among others that, Business Education Students needs Marketing competencies, Accounting competencies to elevate them through the labour market, make them self-reliance and enabling them handle Small scale businesses in Ilorin for a long period of time that will make our economic sustainability. The study recommended that, Adequate provision of career development, adequate procurement of instructional materials and equipment, striking and maintain a balance between theory and practice that will help to stimulate students' confidence to engage themselves in entrepreneurial and Lifelong Skills activities throughout their lifespan.