This document discusses entrepreneurship education in higher education. It suggests that entrepreneurship education should be incorporated across all disciplines, not just business studies, and that it is important for developing entrepreneurial mindsets and skills in students. Effective entrepreneurship education involves experiential learning opportunities and collaboration with real entrepreneurs. Both teachers and institutions must be actively involved and support innovative teaching methods that foster entrepreneurship. Technology should also be integrated into entrepreneurship education programs.
1. How can Entrepreneurship be taught in Higher Education.
Differentiated methods for Business and Non-Business Studies .
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION-A PRIORITY FOR THE HIGHER
EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS
CReBUS- 2012
8 - 9 OCTOBER 2012 BUCHAREST, ROMANIA
Nothando Moyo (Cyprus International University, Northern Cyprus)
3. Introduction
Entrepreneurship refers to an individual’s ability to turn ideas into action and is therefore
regarded as a key competence for all .
Entrepreneurship has always been regarded as something that people turn to when
they have failed in the job market after completing their education or when the
education itself holds no apparent value
To incorporate entrepreneurship in higher education is necessary to stimulate the
entrepreneurial mindset of young people, to encourage innovative business start-
ups, and foster a culture that is friendlier to entrepreneurship
It is acknowledged that the primary goal of entrepreneurship education at higher
education level should be to develop entrepreneurial capacities and mindsets
4. Literature Review
Entrepreneurship and the Entrepreneur
Entrepreneurship is defined by Kuratko (2003), as a dynamic process of vision,
change and creation. It requires an application of energy and passion towards the
creation and implementation of new ideas and creative solutions
Entrepreneurship is the process by which individuals pursue opportunities without
regard to resources they currently control.
Entrepreneurship is diverse; it is comprised of individual projects up to large scale
corporations however all these companies improve the statistics of employment in a
country
5. Entrepreneurship Education
The European Union 2020 strategy has highlighted the need to embed creativity,
innovation and entrepreneurship into education and they proposed a number of
actions to unleash entrepreneurial and innovative capabilities in the higher
education institutes in Europe (European commission, 2012). They listed some
objectives they felt should be reached through entrepreneurship education, these
being:
- Improvement of the entrepreneurship mindset of young people to enable them to be
more creative and self confident in whatever they undertake and to improve their
attractiveness to employers.
- To encourage innovative business start- ups
- Improvement of their role in society and the economy.
The entrepreneurship key competence being identified as a composition of an
entrepreneurial attitude, entrepreneurial skills and knowledge of entrepreneurship,
and this places entrepreneurship education at a pivotal role as it is at this point that
the key competences are meant to be realized
6. Entrepreneurship education means developing a culture through, for and about
entrepreneurship. Such competences are best acquired through people led enquiry
and discovery that enables students to turn ideas into action
It is really hard to change the education curriculum yet it is widely accepted that
effective entrepreneurship education must be built around real world experiences,
not textbooks
Teachers rarely have entrepreneurship experience, or the right mindset. As such it
becomes an interesting phenomenon as to how one can effectively teach something
they have no experience about, to foster the right mindset of entrepreneurship to the
students when they do not possess it themselves
Traditionally, the education system has inhibited the development of
entrepreneurial qualities because it taught young people to obey, reproduce facts
and to engage in wage employment after finishing their education. In contrast,
entrepreneurs tend to rely on their own judgment, learn through the process of trial
and error and create and facilitate their own job environment
7. Entrepreneurship Education with Technology
Education without the use of technology in the current technological that the world
has evolved into would be a blatant attempt of ignoring the importance of
technology today.
Entrepreneurship education should involve technology use as seen from the
introduction of using second life
Entrepreneurship education is a recipe in need of a vital ingredient, the ingredient
being technology. Technology based innovation is acknowledged as being a key
growth driver in the global economy therefore as entrepreneurship education is
having significant positive impact on individual students, the university
environment and society then entrepreneurship education opportunities should
spread across institutions including science and technology departments (Byers,
2000).
8. The Entrepreneurship Teacher
The development of entrepreneurial mindsets is a burden that lies on the teacher,
and as their role is central they need to be equipped with the right skills, knowledge
and attitudes to be able to provide their students with the new curricular,
pedagogies and learning environments that they will need if they are to acquire
entrepreneurial competences
Teachers feel educational and school cultures do not fully support them in fostering
creative and innovative approaches to learning: this requires time to explore new
approaches and a culture that encourages experimentation and allows for failure
and all this in short is what they said embodies an entrepreneurship experience in
the education system for the students.
The entrepreneurship teachers are required to be flexible and to push boundaries
with respect to established norms within education although still abiding by the
rules and regulations of their institutions (Curth, 2011)
9. Findings
The importance of entrepreneurship education is being acknowledged worldwide with various
amounts of research being carried out on the best and most effective ways in which
entrepreneurship may be taught
The teaching methods are both creative and innovative meaning that teachers are recognizing
the fact that traditional teaching methods alone will not do justice to entrepreneurship
education.
The teacher is basically the one responsible in ensuring that the entrepreneurship education
being matted out is relevant and beneficial to the student. Thus the burden falls upon them to
come up with various ways to foster motivation and the entrepreneurship mindset in their
students
It was observed that only in developed countries, is there mention of institutions using
technology frequently in entrepreneurship education, especially on the aspect of virtual
learning in the form of second life and so on
Entrepreneurship education is basically biased towards the Business Studies
curriculum, very little has been said or done to incorporate the students in the non-
business studies side of the education system
10. Suggestions
Higher education institutions need to get actively involved in entrepreneurship education
Entrepreneurship education tools should not be left at the sole discretion of the teacher,
making it their burden to approach existing entrepreneurs, should they wish to have them
come in as guest lecturers or when arranging for site visits
If the higher education institutions took the time to form coalitions with entrepreneurship
groups and organizations they could establish long-term working relationships at the same
time it would become easier for correspondence to take place between entrepreneurs and the
students
Higher education institutions should invest in technology that can be used for
entrepreneurship education, in the same manner in which technology is invested for courses to
do with information technology
Higher education institutions should consider offering entrepreneurship education
as part of the pre-requisite courses done by all students in all departments
Higher education institutions should approach entrepreneurs that can volunteer
their guest lecturing services for the long term as the challenge often encountered is
that of continuity
It is important for the institution and the teacher to work hand in glove in coming
up with a curriculum suitable for entrepreneurship education
11. Conclusion
It is essential that a strong entrepreneurship foundation be established among
individuals especially through the education system as this would ensure higher
entrepreneurial success rates in the long term, and this success equally spells for
economic growth,
The curriculum needs to be adapted to suit entrepreneurship more than
management or business studies courses. With the teachers and the institutions
working closely together, the way in which entrepreneurship education is
conducted will definitely improve
Higher education institutions teaching entrepreneurship should strive to include
technology use in their curriculum as the exposure would benefit both the
institution and the students in the long run
Entrepreneurship education should be granted to all students that register at a
higher education institution regardless of the course they are taking or which
faculty they may fall under