**Abstract**

The chapter examined the concept of entrepreneurship in technical education; types of entrepreneurs such as craft-men, promoters and opportunists; profile of an entrepreneur like originality, hard-work drive, task result oriented, among others; relevance of entrepreneurship to technical education students or graduands such as creating necessary awareness and motivation to excel in students/graduands so as to promote self-reliance and self-employment which is an alternative to salary and wages; challenges in the implementation process of entrepreneurship in technical education, example conglomeration of contents like financial accounting, commerce, economics, among others. In summary, entrepreneurship has been viewed from the standpoints of the psychologist (behaviourist), the economist, and sociologist. Furthermore, the objective of the chapter is to provide literature synthesis on the concept of entrepreneurship. The methodology was meta-synthesis of 15 relevant studies obtained from conference proceedings, text books, and online data bases. Scope of the study included higher and secondary education which are selected as the focus groups of the study in order to encourage assimilation and implementation of entrepreneurship education curricula and development. Data acquired were quantified using descriptive statistics (percentages on bar chart). The result of the study signifies definitions, characteristics, and importance of entrepreneurship needed for improvement of knowledge in enterprise curricula aside from skills and competencies. Higher and Secondary education are selected as the focus groups of the study in order to encourage assimilation and implementation of entrepreneurship education curricula and development.

**Keywords:** entrepreneurship, entrepreneurs, challenges of implementing entrepreneurship education

## **1. Introduction: the concept of entrepreneurship**

The concept of entrepreneurship is elusive, that is difficult to define and taking various meanings as it is viewed differently by different scholars with regard to the context it is employed for. For example, the psychologist (behaviourist) see it as "the need for achievement, perceived locus of control, and risk-taking propensity". The economist looks at it as bringing together the factors of production (land, labour, capital, and entrepreneur) and bearing the risk of buying at a certain price and selling at uncertain prices. While the sociologist views it as the ability to recognize and act upon market opportunities in order to provide social services. Neither of these approaches is sound and all-embracing because each focuses upon some aspects of entrepreneurship and leaving some untouched. However, four different definitions of the term entrepreneurship by different scholars are stated below:


On the other hand, an entrepreneur is someone who assumes the financial risk of beginning and managing a new venture. The venture can be based on totally new idea, new way of doing things, a new location, or attempting something no one else has done before. In other words, an entrepreneur is seen as a person who detects a previously untapped opportunity to make substantial profits (either by lowering the cost of producing existing goods/services or by creating brand new products) [6].

In summary, an entrepreneur is an innovator who implement change within the market through carrying out new combinations. The carrying out of new combinations can take the several forms: the introduction of a new good or quality thereof; the introduction of a new method of production; the opening of a new market; the congress of a new source of supply of new materials or parts; the carrying out of new organization of any industry.
