Contribution of Business Incubation on Entrepreneurship in Accelerating Livelihood Opportunities among TVET Graduates

Abstract

Unemployment is an obstacle to sustained economic growth and development. Millions of
graduates enter the workforce, whilst the labour market accommodates a working population of
about 500,000 to 800,000. The aim of this review paper is to assess the contribution of Business
Incubation on Entrepreneurship in Accelerating Livelihood Opportunities amongst TVET
graduates. A total of 30 published reports were accessed from different databases, and 10
sampled papers were reviewed to assess the methodological scope, document limitations and
assumptions, and their implication to policy. Analysis of methodological approaches reveal that
scholars using cross-sectional quantitative surveys sought to answer questions that included:
roles of business start-up and government regulations on Entrepreneurship Development and
role of incubation programme to SMEs. Hypothesis tested perceptions, motivation, and influence
on entrepreneurship education. Findings established entrepreneurship as a key source of
economic revolution, job creation, and business development, with a strong relationship existing
between incubation services and entrepreneurship development. Quasi experimental tested the
impact of networking services, capital support and training programs, establishing a positive
relationship. Qualitative approaches revealed that resources provided to participants aided
entrepreneurial endeavours whereas negotiation skills and access to clients were limited.
Limitation includegeographical coverage, failure to leverage on digital tools to collect data,
minimal adoption of mixed approaches and research designs, limiting contribution to new
knowledge, and exclusion of industries, academia, and government as stakeholders. Key
knowledge gap from the study is how entrepreneurship education can be made more practical to
allow transition to the labour market. Thus, future research should focus on development of a
conceptual framework that will be helpful in standardizing entrepreneurship education and
training programmes to spur job creation for better livelihoods.
Keywords: Business incubation, innovation, livelihood opportunities, entrepreneurship,
graduates, start up.