Author(s): Akintolu Morakinyo, Omotola Akinsola
There are many educational reforms that have taken a turn in Nigeria but leadership and entrepreneurship skills have not received much attention in the reforms and curriculum development as a whole. However, there are limited research and model that create a platform for teenagers and youths to acquire leadership and entrepreneurial skills in public high schools. Previous work has only focused on students in tertiary institutions. In response to the need and to produce youths with entrepreneurial, leadership skills, competent and resilience, this paper investigates the impact of leadership and entrepreneurship education as a strategy for strengthening youth community engagement in Nigeria, lesson learnt from Jumpstart Project. The study adopted the theory of social impact assessment. The respondents are the final year and alumni scholars of the project. A qualitative design method was used. An interview was conducted containing some questions under these sub-themes the accessibility, types, relevant, how they utilized the skills learnt and the challenges faced during the project. An analysis from the responses indicated that leadership and entrepreneurial education is highly important for students in high schools where the students can align their education pursuit with leadership and entrepreneurial skills. However, there is a lot that is expected of them in order to meet up with the school curriculum. Furthermore, this study found a correlation between entrepreneurial and leadership education and academic excellence. The study recommends that such a model should be adopted into the curriculum, where all governmentowned high school students learn the art of leadership and develop the entrepreneurial spirit even as a teenager.