Enterprise and entrepreneurship education: implications for innovation in delivery

This paper studies current provision of enterprise and entrepreneurship education at one university and provides recommendations for curriculum development across several different subject areas. The paper reviews the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (2012) report Enterprise and entrepreneurship education: Guidance for higher education providers; and the recent All-Party Parliamentary Action Group for Micro Businesses report (2014) An Education System fit for An Entrepreneur. The former report highlights the importance of four factors concerning the students learning experience (enterprise awareness, developing an entrepreneurial mind-set, developing entrepreneurial capability, entrepreneurial effectiveness) and relates these to graduate outcomes (behaviours, attributes, skills).The approach of this research is to map existing delivery in three subjects against the above factors and consider what gaps can be plugged and how. Thus the approach is largely a mapping exercise but includes primary interviews with four senior managers (n=4) and a sample of students (n=42) to elicit their feedback on changes in delivery. The results provide a basis for curriculum development planning applicable to the particular subjects involved. However, implications are stated for how other subject areas can innovate in three key areas of HE provision (teaching, learning, and assessment) in order to improve the effectiveness of entrepreneurs and the employability of graduates in general. The value of the report is in highlighting key aspects of current delivery that can be improved through enhanced student learning, and improved delivery, around the theme of enterprise and entrepreneurship education.

The published paper is included in the Middlesex University Research Repository with permission from the publisher Academic Conferences and Publishing International (ACPI)

Paper first published by Academic Conferences and Publishing International (ACPI) as: Moon, C., 2014. Enterprise and entrepreneurship education: implications for innovation in delivery. Proceedings of the 9th European Conference on Innovation and Entrepreneurship ECIE 2014 Belfast, Northern Ireland, pp. 630-641. Book ISBN: 978-1-910309-45-2, Book ISSN: 2049-1069