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Over the years, governments in Ghana have provided various stimulus packages for local entrepreneurs to rejuvenate and expand their businesses while setting up new companies. The question is, how talented are the youth in entrepreneurship? This paper sought to review the extant literature on the impact of skill acquisition on entrepreneurship development and progress in Ghana. The Systematic Literature Review (SLR) approach was used to search for relevant journal articles from Scopus, Emerald Insight, and Google Scholar search engines. The search criteria were limited to journal articles with the keywords “skill acquisition”, “entrepreneurship,” and entrepreneurship development” from 1970 to 2020. Using the SLR technique, a total of 45 articles were identified, and 21 were relevant to the research focus. The review identified that skill acquisition significantly influences entrepreneurship development. It is recommended that entrepreneurship skill acquisition should be integrated in the Ghanaian education system right from the elementary level. Again, tertiary institutions in Ghana should have entrepreneurial centers for practical sessions.

Entrepreneurial orientation (ENO), social network ties (SOT) and market intelligence generation (MIT) are independently modeled as distinct antecedents of entrepreneurial intention (EIN). However, the intervening variables for such models are typically under-explored in their applicability to university students in sub-Saharan Africa. Accordingly, drawing on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), the present study argues that ENO impacts EIN, primarily explained by SOT and MIT. Using cross-sectional data gathered from university students in Ghana, a sub-Saharan African country, our findings reveal that ENO has both direct and indirect relationships with EIN. Thus, this relationship is mainly mediated when students build and develop social network ties (SOT) instead of gathering marketing intelligence (MIT).

Recognising the relevance of entrepreneurship, most African universities have made significant input into delivering Entrepreneurial Education in Higher Educational Institutions. However, the rising number of graduate unemployment raises concerns with regard to quality of educational content, and programmes. This study sought to investigate the impact of entrepreneurship course content on entrepreneurial intention and the mediation of individual entrepreneurial characteristics and also to investigate if graduates’ exposure to extra entrepreneurship training and university programme type does account for differences in individual entrepreneurial characteristics. A context-specific framework that explains entrepreneurial intention as a function of course content, programmes type, and extra entrepreneurial training is tested based on data from 400 undergraduate students and 400 graduates from eight Ghanaian universities. Evidence from the model reveals that entrepreneurial course content did impact entrepreneur Intention, however, this impact is partially mediated by the attitudes, perceived behavioural control and subjective norms of Ghanaian students and graduates. Again, while it was found that extra entrepreneurial training did account for differences in individual entrepreneurial characteristics and entrepreneurial intention of graduates, the difference due to programme type was not significant. Theoretical, policy and practical implications findings of this study are discussed.