Entrepreneurship Education: Unlocking Potential

Karen Wilson | August 21, 2009

These initiatives bode well for ensuring sustained momentum to encourage schools, universities and other organizations to make commitments in this area and for policy-makers, international organizations and others to help facilitate the process.

 

There have been many recent studies which have all pointed in similar directions, the following three examples are particularly interesting: 

 

 

It is time to leverage these and other initiatives to have a greater impact in implementing entrepreneurship education programmes on the ground where they are needed.

 

One of the key success factors for entrepreneurship education is the effective development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, in which multiple stakeholders play a role in facilitating entrepreneurship. This includes business (large and small firms as well as entrepreneurs), policy-makers (at the international, national, regional and local levels) and educational institutions (primary, secondary and higher education).

 

Access and exposure to entrepreneurship within educational systems at all levels is important as is outreach to target audiences outside of traditional educational systems. Entrepreneurial learning should be deeply embedded into the curriculum, rather than only offered as stand-alone courses, to ingrain a new entrepreneurial spirit and mindset among students. To effectively embed entrepreneurship into education systems, there must be commitment from government (often the primary funders of the education), the educational institutions themselves and other key stakeholders.

 

Entrepreneurship is not only about business and/or for business students. It is critical in all disciplines and sectors. Entrepreneurship education needs to be expanded across disciplines – particularly to the technology and science, where many innovative ideas and companies originate, as well as to design, health care, public policy and other areas. The world is not divided into functional silos so neither should the educational process. All students should be required to take an entrepreneurship course to open their minds to entrepreneurial approaches whatever their employment choices might be later in their lives (and often those shift over time with many people becoming entrepreneurs well after graduation).

 

Entrepreneurship education requires a different approach in teaching and learning. In particular, it requires experiential and action learning with a focus on critical thinking and problem solving. The pedagogy should be interactive, encouraging students to experiment and experience entrepreneurship through working on case studies, games, projects, simulations, real-life actions, internships with start-ups and other hands-on activities that involve interaction with entrepreneurs.

 

Effective entrepreneurship education programmes focus on developing entrepreneurial attitudes, skills and behaviours. This includes building self-confidence, self-efficacy and leadership skills. Curriculum development is critical and must be based around local materials, case studies, role models and examples. These should include appropriate representation of along the lines of gender, youth, indigenous people, and people with a disability, as well as informal enterprises and those based in rural areas.

 

Entrepreneurship education should be very closely linked with practice. Educators should be encouraged to reach out to the business community and integrate them into the learning process. Outside speakers and case studies provide role models for students considering an entrepreneurial career path. This is an important part of creating entrepreneurial drive: if students see that people “like themselves” were able to successfully create companies, it helps to demystify the process and make that option more feasible.

 

There is a need to grow the number of entrepreneurship educators as well as further develop them by providing the appropriate training, particularly in interactive teaching methods. Entrepreneurs and others with entrepreneurial experience should also be allowed, encouraged and trained to teach. They not only provide great value in the classroom, but they also enhance entrepreneurial spirit within the institution overall and create stronger links with the local community and ecosystem.