Entrepreneurship education and boys' and girls' perceptions of entrepreneurs

Abstract

There are many studies on the impacts of entrepreneurship education in higher education, but few studies have assessed how secondary schools can contribute to create a more dynamic enterprise culture. This paper assesses whether a European entrepreneurship programme directed at upper secondary school promote positive attitudes towards entrepreneurs. The programme investigated is called the company programme (CP), and the study is done in Norway where the programme CP reaches approximately 15% of all pupils. There is a particular focus on girls within entrepreneurship education in Norway, and we will present our results on the impact of CP for girls and boys separately. Results from multilevel models indicate that both boy and girl participants in CP are more likely than non-participants to think that an entrepreneur is “someone who wants to use his/her creativity” and less likely to think that an entrepreneur “is someone who cannot find another job”. However, attitudes about entrepreneurs also vary among boy and girl CP-participants. Girls participating in CP are less likely to think that an entrepreneur is someone who wants to be his/her own boss. Boys in the CP programme are more likely to think that an entrepreneur “is someone who wants recognition by society” and less likely to perceive an entrepreneur as “someone who is not well educated”.