Integration Of Entrepreneurship Education Research Articles

Venture creation programs: bridging entrepreneurship education and technology transfer

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to explore how university-based entrepreneurship programs, incorporating real-life venture creation into educational design and delivery, can bridge the gap between entrepreneurship education and technology transfer within the university environment.Design/methodology/approach– Based on a literature review and snowball sampling over a two-year period, 18 entrepreneurship education programs were identified as applying a venture creation approach. Ten of these programs were selected for case study, including direct interviews and participatory observation during a two-day workshop. Empirical findings were iteratively related to theory within entrepreneurship education and technology transfer.Findings– The paper identifies the bridging capabilities of venture creation programs (VCP) across five core themes, illustrating the potential benefits of closer collaboration between entrepreneurship education and technology transfer in a university environment.Research limitations/implications– A definition for “VCP” is tested empirically. These programs are shown to be sophisticated laboratory environments, allowing for clinical research towards the understanding of entrepreneurship and technology transfer processes.Practical implications– Findings identify practical benefits of combining entrepreneurship education and technology transfer activities, such as increased value creation through not only new firms, but also an entrepreneurially equipped graduate population. VCPs allow for “spin-through” of innovative ideas in the university environment, while simultaneously contributing to entrepreneurial learning.Originality/value– This paper presents findings from the first multiple case study into entrepreneurship education specifically designed to develop real-life venture as part of the core curriculum. Findings provide basis for investigating the value of integrating entrepreneurship education and technology transfer at the university.

Entrepreneurship Education in Tourism and Hospitality Programs

The aim of this article is to evaluate the entrepreneurship module offered in hospitality and tourism programs by institutions of higher learning in the United Arab Emirates. Some of the challenges faced by hospitality and tourism students and entrepreneurship educators are highlighted. The results show that hospitality and tourism students do not consider the entrepreneurship module to be an important subject within their program. This poses a number of challenges for institutions in terms of seeking to appropriately integrate entrepreneurship education within a program of study toward the entrepreneurial inclination of hospitality and tourism students. The article highlights the growing need to create an entrepreneurial culture that will encourage and foster greater initiative and entrepreneurial activity.

Entrepreneurial Intentions of Agricultural Students: Levels and Determinants

Purpose: This paper examined levels and determinants of entrepreneurial intentions amongst agricultural students. Methodology: The statistical population comprised students in colleges of agriculture at University of Tehran. By use of a random sampling method, a sample of 120 students participated in the study. The instrument for data collection was a pen and paper questionnaire. The validity and reliability of questionnaire were determined through calculating Cronbach's alpha coefficient and opinions of scientific board members.Findings: The findings revealed that about a half of the respondents had medium entrepreneurial intentions. There were differences in entrepreneurial intentions between students who had attended entrepreneurship courses and those who had not. Also, there were differences in entrepreneurial intentions between students who had self-employed parents and those who had not. According to the findings, education support, personality traits and skill were the three factors that influenced the entrepreneurial intentions of students.Practical Implications: Since education support has a significant impact on students' intention to start their own businesses, it is essential for agricultural colleges to integrate entrepreneurship education into their educational programs through curriculum development. It is also recommended that agricultural colleges introduce entrepreneurship ideas as a starting point for students to motivate them.

Youth Empowerment and the Integration of Entrepreneurship Education into Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in Nigeria

All economies of the world possess four essential elements, viz, land; labour; capital and entrepreneurship, though they are not evenly distributed. Entrepreneurship education seeks to provide students with knowledge, skills and motivation to encourage entrepreneurial success. The highest pool of potential workforce for any nation is its university students. This study was carried out in the University of Uyo, Nigeria, to investigate the appropriate strategies for integrating entrepreneurship education into TVET. 2 specific purposes and 2 research questions guided the study. A 30 item instrument tagged Entrepreneurship Training and Integration Questionnaire was used in collecting data for the study. 74 TVET lecturers constituted the population and a total of 48 were randomly selected to form the sample. It was found that industry-academia interaction, appropriate instructional methods and the development of problem solving skills, creativity, risk taking ability and team working skills were vital for developing entrepreneurship among students. It was recommended that there should be industry-academia interactions and that students should be guided to discover knowledge by themselves. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2013.v2n2p211

Facing the Changing Demands of Europe: Integrating Entrepreneurship Education in Finnish Teacher Training Curricula

The European Union (EU) considers the learning of entrepreneurial skills to be an essential factor in creating welfare. Therefore, in the EU, one of the latest core aspects is to develop entrepreneurship education in teacher education. However, entrepreneurship education still seems to be, across the countries, a quite uncommon theme. This article describes the ways in which entrepreneurship education is included in the curricula of Finnish teacher training. The curricula for academic and vocational teacher education were obtained in autumn 2010, either online or by requesting them in paper or electronic format. The inclusion of entrepreneurship education has developed relatively effectively in the curricula of vocational teacher education units. Academic teacher education units have not really increased the quantity of entrepreneurship education in their curricula. In the curricula of the teacher training schools, entrepreneurship education is mentioned at least as a formality. The current unstable situation in the EU requires not only economic arrangements, but also new approaches in other areas, such as education and its reform. As an implication for practice, we propose there could be more support for curriculum design of higher education at both national and EU level.

Integrating Entrepreneurship Education into Vocational and Technical Education Curricula

Integrating Entrepreneurship Education into Vocational and Technical Education Curricula

Framework for Entrepreneurship Education in Nigerian Higher Institutions of Learning

It seems fair to argue that opinions from Nigeria’s government and its policy makers, and the management of various Nigerian higher institutions of learning concerning the mandatory introduction of entrepreneurship education in all disciplines so far have lacked a common framework. This lack of framework is responsible for the unending debates as to what way should the old curriculum be change to integrate entrepreneurship education? What should constitute the scheme of the entrepreneurship course if a change in curriculum is indeed needed? Whose responsibility the entrepreneurship course teaching should be? And many questions regarding the integration of entrepreneurial theoretical and vocational education still remain unanswered. Hence, this study seeks to give a clue to the aforementioned unending debates and unanswered questions; and advance the need for entrepreneurial education in Nigerian higher institutions of learning by reviewing and synthesizing available entrepreneurship education literature. The paper concludes that entrepreneurship education initiative is ideal for Nigeria, be a country that have been in economic stagnation since early 1980s; and that the right and competent teaching staff of various higher institutions that are knowledgeable in entrepreneurship studies should be saddled with the entrepreneurship theoretical teaching responsibility and the vocational aspect should be the responsibility of staff in those disciplines that have bearing to the vocational entrepreneurship education activities structured

The challenges of integrating entrepreneurship education in the vocational training system

PurposeThis paper seeks to discuss the challenges faced when trying to integrate entrepreneurship education in the training system, with a particular focus on vocational training.Design/methodology/approachThe data were collected through in‐depth interviews, document reviews and focus group discussions. The respondents were drawn from VETA headquarters – training director, centre managers, entrepreneurship instructors in the centre, and a section of final year students who were purposively selected. Other stakeholders in vocational training in Tanzania were also consulted.FindingsThe findings were organized around key themes of the research as per the set objectives. The emerging views showed some of the following issues as the major challenges facing the authority in its effort to integrate entrepreneurship training in the programme: time too limited to cover the core subjects; Form iv leavers and standard vii trainees have different understanding levels; financial/budgetary constraint; few instructors with relevant skills; lack of role models of successful former trainees who are practising entrepreneurs; course too theoretical, lacking the component of field studies; and the course too boring compared with other mainstream courses.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample size was too small to be wholly reliable for generalizing the findings to a similar problem. However, the insights gained are a crucial basis for further research and give some variables to be investigated on their significance in shaping entrepreneurship training, especially in a developing country like Tanzania.Originality/valueThe research provides knowledge that was lacking as far as entrepreneurship training and vocational training are involved. Other studies, especially in Tanzania, focused on the quality of technical training and the infrastructural resources rather than business‐related skills.