Exploring a new age of entrepreneurship through education

Creating Entrepreneurs through Education…is this the new trend?

An emerging trend is that education, more than ever before, now plays a vital role in shaping entrepreneurship. Carmel Doyle looks at how Universities, Institutes of Technology (IT's) and Colleges are collaborating North and South and Internationally to nuture this new movement.

Educators in business and entrepreneurship argue that entrepreneurial education is fundamental for fostering lifelong learning for both students and for those already in business. Many of Ireland's universities and IT's now have designated faculties and courses, such as MBAs and postgraduate courses in entrepreneurship to nurture people to become better managers while also directing aspiring entrepreneurs to get on the business track. On an all-island basis, both universities and IT's are also increasingly engaging on both research interchange and staff consultation and in incubating businesses while also fostering enterprise spin-outs.

Seeping Through

At tertiary level, entrepreneurship education is infiltrating into all faculties as teachers are acknowledging how students, regardless of their course, need to explore enterprise opportunities and to become more inventive in their thought processes while at the same time translating this knowledge into clear enterprise action upon graduation.

The spin offs of entrepreneurial education at tertiary level is that students become more inventive, are enthusiastic about exploring opportunities and learn to become more enterprise driven, whatever their chosen field. According to the Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanafin, T.D., "it is important that students of various disciplines should have an appreciation of entrepreneurial opportunities and be supported in developing the skills required to explore these. It is very encouraging that higher education institutions are now clearly recognising the importance of these skills across diverse programmes, particularly in areas like the sciences and technology where business skills would not traditionally have been given the attention that they now merit."

In Economic Terms

Recent reports from the European Commission indicate how Europe as a whole needs more innovative firms and an increasing number of entrepreneurs to start ventures, particularly in the high-growth SME sector. Making self-employment a viable option for students is what most educators in entrepreneurship education will agree is critical in equipping students with real exposure to business while also embracing their own unique potential. According to Paula Fitzsimons, National Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) co-ordinator, "GEM research indicates that those who have a belief in their ability to successfully run a new business are twice as likely to be entrepreneurial as those who do not have this degree of self belief. This simply means that, the more people in Ireland that acquire this personal perception, the more entrepreneurs there are likely to be."

Domino Effect

The cultural aspects of fostering entrepreneurship at an early age are far reaching. In primary schools, the Bi Gnothach enterprise education programme is one scheme that exposes young students to entrepreneurship values. At secondary level, initiatives such as the Student Enterprise awards, the transition year programme, the Leaving Certificate vocational and applied programmes, which run Enterprise Encounter, are all contributory factors in equipping students with an enterprising mindset.

Another important initiative is NFTE Ireland, the subsidiary of the US founded National Foundation for the Teaching of Entrepreneurship, which is helping students from disadvantaged backgrounds start their own companies and practically learn the dynamics of running a business. Pat Maher, Executive Director, Enterprise Ireland, feels that entrepreneurship teaching, at secondary level in particular, should be mandatory because it's 'training for life'. While, at tertiary level, Maher also indicates how students in faculties outside of business need to further engage in business and entrepreneurship modules. "People doing science and engineering are limiting their job prospects considerably unless they have a fair understanding of what a business is, what its objectives are and how to run it."

Dr Pauric McGowan, Director Northern Ireland Centre for Entrepreneurship (NICENT) argues that at every level of the education sector on the island of Ireland, education needs to be 'embedded' in the curriculum. Says McGowan, "everyone has the potential to be entrepreneurial, to be an individual who can make a difference and who pursues opportunities that add value to the lives of others either as new venturers or as employees within established businesses."

Information Interchange

But while the focus on education usually hones in on students, what about the staff at institutions who must themselves be passionate about entrepreneurship and about communicating their vision with students?

Entrepreneurship supports all realms of society from home life, to innovation and social and commercial activity. If educators are passionate about the potential of entrepreneurship education themselves this, in turn, infiltrates into the entrepreneurial mindsets of students who will subsequently go on to either start their own ventures or will go on to work for existing SMEs and bring their distinctive capabilities to an organisation. Pauric McGowan affirms how educators have a defining role to play in 'drawing out' that entrepreneurial potential that is inherent in people. "Ireland, north and south needs more people to behave entrepreneurially and the education sector must respond to that challenge."

Value To Industry

Dr Colette Henry, head of the department of Business Studies at Dundalk Institute of Technology, believes that educators need to infuse a more 'creative approach' in young students. "Sometimes, contrary to traditional academic approaches, we just need to allow our students more scope in their thinking and encourage different views. This is where problem solving and creative exercises come in." Adds Henry, "to be totally controversial, we need to get rid of lecture theatres and throw away the overhead projectors, if even for part of the course, and allow students more time to develop their creative thinking, their team work and their flair for developing new ideas!"

Communication Channels

While entrepreneurial education at third and fourth level plays a huge role in fostering tomorrow's entrepreneurs, it is crucial not to overlook the training of entrepreneurs outside of the institutional arena. Equipping those already in business and exposing marginalised groups and those on the fringes of academic life to real and accessible business training is also imperative. The City and County Enterprise Boards (CEBs) and Enterprise Platform programmes (EPP's) run vital services for both established and entrepreneurs. Another important initiative is Emerge, a development partnership, with partners in Tallaght, Cork, Dublin and Galway, that cultivates methodologies to develop and expand ethnic minority businesses.

According to Patrick Munden, MD of the South East Business Innovation Centre (SEBIC), "rather than just directly teaching entrepreneurship in a classroom environment, we must be exposing students to the 'live lab' of real time entrepreneurship." SEBIC currently runs a programme with the University of Michigan whereby teams of MBA students from the university visit Ireland and undertake specific projects with SEBIC's start-up clients. Munden explains how it's a win-win situation. "Students get exposure to real entrepreneurial situations and our clients receive valuable input from business students into their project."

Venture Potential

Pauric McGowan outlines how established businesses must continue to think strategically about retaining the entrepreneurial vision that depicted the budding days of their start-up. "As a firm grows this can so easily disappear. Finding, recruiting, motivating entrepreneurial people in the firm becomes a crucial part of this agenda. The education sector has to do its bit, in collaboration with industry, to respond to this challenge," concludes McGowan.

Ann Horan, Project Director at the Ryan Academy for Entrepreneurship believes that, "education is about opening student's minds to the possibilities and helping them to learn from the successes and fail-ures of others. When we were growing up, entrepreneurship was not discussed in schools and the role of the entrepreneur in society was not seen to be important." Outlining how universities in recent years have become leaders in the quest to challenge the perception of entrepreneurship, with many now offering modules on their degree courses, Horan also refers to the success of NFTE in exposing children from low income backgrounds to the joys and benefits of entrepreneurship. Adds Paula Fitzsimons, "the educational sector has a key role to play in increasing entrepreneurial mindsets and in enhancing the capacity of those who decide to become entrepreneurs."

Spinning Out

Strategically, universities and IT's are increasingly involved in helping researchers and campus companies transfer knowledge and technology research into the commercial domain.
Fusion is one such all-island network initiative between industry and academia which is facilitating knowledge and technology transfer across the island by founding a cross-border network of contacts and channels between enterprise, knowledge centres and knowledge carriers.

Crossing Over

John Mulcahy, CEO of UUTech at the University of Ulster, argues, "even within the research establishment can we identify those individuals, entrepreneurial by nature who would be best capable of commercialising their research?" Affirms Pat Maher, Executive Director, Enterprise Ireland, "on the research side, big strides have been made in universities towards becoming more commercial and that's been partly forced on them through reduced funding and through demands from the business sector."

Incubating Tomorrow's Entrepreneurs