Topic outline
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The lecturer carries out systematic research into each class. This research shows that different groups of people take these courses. The best way to explain how we meet their needs is to describe the three general approaches to entrepreneurship education; education about entrepreneurship, education for entrepreneurship, and education in entrepreneurship (Jamieson 1984; Hytti & O'Gorman 2004).
Education about entrepreneurship
Our research shows that the large majority of students taking this course want education about entrepreneurship. This includes the large number of students who are attracted by the topic, want to know about creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship, and perhaps want to complete an innovation and entrepreneurship stream. If you are in this group, you will find that these are challenging courses that give you a great deal of knowledge and insights that will help you to either start your own venture, or to be creative and entrepreneurial in an existing business, or to commercialise an innovation. You will find these courses to be a very good preparation for working in the small-business or entrepreneurial business environment.
In addition:
- Education about entrepreneurship is also for students who are required to do these courses as part of their study program. If you are in this group, you will find that these courses will help you to see how different areas of study are linked together in a business context. In particular, you will find that these courses give you insights into the way that small business works, and will help you to be creative, innovative and entrepreneurial in their future work environment. Finally, these courses may help you to identify an innovative and entrepreneurial way in which you could apply the knowledge that you are gaining in other parts of your degree.
- Education about entrepreneurship is also for those students who are simply wanting to do an elective to quickly complete the requirements for their degree. If you are in this group,these courses might be more challenging than you expect - they are standard university course that require about 120 hours of your time, and cannot be completed successfully simply by coming along to a few lectures. The courses offer many benefits, but you must do your part by putting time and effort into the coursework, and by working on the project that is a central part of this course. You will find that these courses will help you to integrate knowledge across different study areas, and may give you ideas about how to apply your knowledge in an innovative and entrepreneurial way.
Education for entrepreneurship
In each class, we find that there are perhaps one or two students who have in mind a business idea and who want to start their own new venture. If you are one of these people, you are looking for education for entrepreneurship. You will gain a great deal from these courses because they will give you frameworks for dealing with the entrepreneurial challenge and also a range of practical skills that will help you to avoid the most common problems (as well as some of the less obvious ones). In particular, you will gain insights by working on the single business ideas in these courses, and by learning from the contributions of other students.
Education in entrepreneurship
There are very few people taking these courses who have already started a new venture. These courses will provide a certain level of education in entrepreneurship by providing frameworks and models that are drawn from international research into entrepreneurship and innovation that will help you to better understand your own business situation and how to address the challenges of building your business. As academic courses, these go beyond the "war stories" that you are most likely to get in practice-based entrepreneurship training and mentoring programs.
References:
Jamieson, I. 1984, 'Schools and Enterprise', in Watts, A. & Moran, P. (eds), Education for Enterprise, CRAC, Cambridge, pp. 19-27.
Hytti, U. & O'Gorman, C. 2004, 'What is "enterprise education"? An analysis of the objectives and methods of enterprise education programmes in four European countries', Education + Training, vol. 46, no. 1, pp. 11-23.