The National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), in collaboration with the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), has begun validating the National Diploma (ND) Entrepreneurship curriculum.

The four-day national critique and validation workshop was designed to review the curriculum and ensure it equips students with the practical skills needed to establish, manage, and grow businesses.

Speaking at the workshop on Monday in Kaduna, NBTE’s executive secretary, Idris Bugaje, said the review must address what happens to students after completing the ND programme.

Mr Bugaje said the workshop should determine suitable higher education pathways for ND Entrepreneurship graduates seeking to further their studies.

He said participants should establish whether graduates could progress into Higher National Diploma (HND) programmes such as Business Administration or require a dedicated HND Entrepreneurship programme.

“These are questions that this workshop has to answer,” Mr Bugaje said, urging participants to ensure the curriculum produced meaningful outcomes.

He said the ND Entrepreneurship programme was distinct from Business Administration and Marketing, although elements of those disciplines could feature in its content.

According to him, entrepreneurship education must enable young Nigerians to understand how to establish businesses from scratch and develop them into sustainable ventures.

Mr Bugaje said the curriculum should also expose students to financial management, business operations and other critical components required for successful enterprise development.

He explained that the national critique and validation exercise was necessary to examine the curriculum critically and strengthen its relevance to the country’s economic needs.

The NBTE boss thanked SMEDAN for supporting the exercise and described the partnership as important to developing a robust ND Entrepreneurship programme.

Mr Bugaje urged the resource persons and other participants to contribute meaningfully to the deliberations, saying their expertise would shape the quality and relevance of the final curriculum.

He formally declared the workshop open and expressed confidence that the deliberations would produce a programme capable of supporting Nigeria’s entrepreneurship development.

(NAN)