Pre-retirement entrepreneurship skill development and career transition readiness of serving directors in the Nigerian public service

Individual preparedness to shift from an employment to entrepreneurship is crucial to boosting economic growth and development of nations. This sustained level of readiness often creates a psychological mindset that enables individuals to cope with the uncertainties when transiting to another phase of life and or profession after retirement. Thus, the paper examined how serving directors in the Nigerian public service can be prepared to transit from employment option to entrepreneurship. Adopting survey research strategy, data were collected from 10 public ministries using structured questionnaire and 184 copies of the instrument found worthy for statistical analysis. The collected data were subjected to Spearman Ranked Order Correlation Coefficient statistical tool and the result revealed that pre-retirement entrepreneurship skill development positively correlate with career transition readiness of serving directors in the Nigerian public service. The study concluded that financial literacy, business management skill, innovation and creativity equips public service directors with the requisite knowledge of business thereby making them to be psychologically ready to transit to their new profession after retirement from active employment. It therefore advocate for regular training on financial literacy, business management skill, innovation and creativity in order to increase the awareness of public service directors’ and as well equip them with new competencies for successful transition.