Entrepreneurial training has been emphasized as a tool to promote business startup in order to reduce unemployment. It is acknowledged to be instrumental in promoting a more entrepreneurial climate in a country. Researchers have pointed out that training plays a vital role in supporting emerging small businesses. It prepares people to start their own business, strengthens their entrepreneurial capabilities, changes their mindsets and encourages them to undertake the entrepreneurial endeavour. However, despite the increasing attention on entrepreneurship training, much emphasis have been on traditional training programmes with less focus on non-traditional training programmes with a lack of research on entrepreneurial intentions and entrepreneurship training in varied and multiple contexts. Using a descriptive study, 195 participants of non-traditional entrepreneurship programmes offered by the government in Southern Nigeria were examined and findings reveal that to a large extent non-traditional entrepreneurship programmes does contribute to the nurturing of participants’ entrepreneurial attributes, values, mindset, intention and the starting of their businesses. The findings add new knowledge to the entrepreneurship literature on non-traditional entrepreneurship training programmes. It provides implications that will guide government policy decision in the offering of entrepreneurship programmes in the region under study.
Keywords: Entrepreneurial Attributes, Entrepreneurial Behaviour, Entrepreneurial Culture, Entrepreneurial Mindset, Entrepreneurship Training, entrepreneurial intention
