Portuguese research shows value of entrepreneurial training in developing necessary skills

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  

Purpose The goal was to study how entrepreneurship education and training programmes (EETPs) influence the development of entrepreneurial competencies and creation of business venture Design/methodology/approach The authors tested a series of hypotheses on the EETPs designed for the Sabor Entrepreneurship Programme (SEP), in northern Portugal. They used a detailed questionnaire. At the time of the research (2018), the SEP had had five editions across Sabor’s five municipalities. The main aim of the EETPs was to train participants to run their own companies. Findings The study showed that the entrepreneurship education and training programmes (EETP) developed in the Sabor Region in the north helped participants to develop entrepreneurial skills. Despite these positive results, the researchers were unable to prove statistically that the programme had a definite influence on the creation of companies. Too many other factors, such as financing, bureaucracy and access to information proved critical in the formation of new businesses. Originality/value The researchers were motivated to carry out their research because EETPs have been rapidly expanding throughout the world, but there is no consensus about their effectiveness, or about the best elements to include. To bridge the gaps, the authors examined the role of EETPs in the development of entrepreneurial skills and the creation of businesses.

2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (6/7) ◽  
pp. 595-614
Author(s):  
Anderson Galvão ◽  
Carla Marques ◽  
João J. Ferreira

Purpose This study aims to understand how entrepreneurship education and training programmes (EETPs) influence the development of entrepreneurial competencies and creation of business ventures. Design/methodology/approach The study included a questionnaire distributed to 103 EETP participants. The data were processed using SmartPLS software to construct a structural equation model. Findings The results show, first, that the respondents’ motivations have a positive impact on participation in entrepreneurship education programmes and company creation. Second, participation in these programmes positively influences individual entrepreneurial orientation and entrepreneurial skills. The findings also include that the entrepreneurship education programme under study has strengthened its participants’ capacities and competencies, making these people more autonomous and facilitating their creation of new businesses. Originality/value This study sought to contribute to a fuller empirical understanding of how EETPs affect their participants’ individual entrepreneurship orientation and capacities (human resource development), thereby fostering company formation and regional development. Theoretical and practical implications are presented, with an emphasis on what needs to be done to improve EETPs.


2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-83
Author(s):  
Nimitha Aboobaker ◽  
Renjini D.

Purpose In the context of conflicting results in the existing literature on the effectiveness of entrepreneurial education and training, this study aims to examine the effect of entrepreneurial training on perceived human capital and entrepreneurial intention of students. A deeper understanding of the effectiveness of entrepreneurship programs assumes significance, given the substantial policy support and budgetary spending on entrepreneurship education across the world, especially in emerging economies like India. Furthermore, the authors seek to examine if human capital mediates the relationship between entrepreneurial training and entrepreneurial intention. Design/methodology/approach In total, 330 final-year students who had undergone a mandatory course on “entrepreneurship and new venture planning” in various disciplines in science, technology and management were randomly selected as sample respondents. A self-administered and structured questionnaire that measured the attitude toward perceived effectiveness of entrepreneurial education and training, perceived human capital and the entrepreneurial intention was used to elicit responses. Findings Results revealed that entrepreneurial training and education are effective in eliciting an important student-level outcome of entrepreneurial intention. Furthermore, the study found that human capital significantly mediates the aforementioned relationship. Based on these findings, it is suggested to further the focus of entrepreneurial training programs conducted in universities and thus foster entrepreneurial outcomes among students. Originality/value This study adds to the body of knowledge, by examining if entrepreneurial education and training provided by universities indeed yield positive results in terms of higher intentions to engage in entrepreneurial activities, with emphasis on a large developing economy like India. Entrepreneurship development is widely recognized as an effective tool for the socio-economic development of societies in developing countries. This study, by establishing the efficacy of entrepreneurship education in creating entrepreneurial intention among young students, endorses the policy focus and resource spending on entrepreneurship training and education. Also, this study is pioneering in examining the mediating role of human capital in the aforementioned relationship.


Author(s):  
Abede Jawara Mack ◽  
Daniel White ◽  
Osiris Senghor

AbstractTechnical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) serves as a pillar for economic stability globally. Entrepreneurship education provides young people with essential skills that can be used in a positive manner, thus enabling them to be employers rather than employees. Marrying TVET and entrepreneurship education can help Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) in tremendous ways. These two subjects TVET and entrepreneurship can lift T&T to global prestige. Given this context, the study explored the benefits of exposing Post-Secondary TVET students to entrepreneurial training. An investigation was carried out using a mix-methods approach. The use of regression analysis and Spearman’s Correlation Analysis were used that determine the relationship between exposing Post-Secondary Technical Vocational Education and Training Students (PSTVETS) to entrepreneurship education and their interest in entrepreneurial training. Additionally, qualitative data was incorporated by utilising content analysis, focus groups and semi-structured interviews. The data revealed there was an absence of entrepreneurship education. Upon further investigation there was no real entrepreneurship culture or framework implemented within the PS schools. The results also showed the more students are exposed to entrepreneurship education more they are inclined to pursue entrepreneurship endeavours. Data also allowed the reader to grasped copious challenges experienced within TVET in T&T, that impacts on entrepreneurial training within post-secondary institutions in T&T. The researchers put forward an entrepreneurship education model that can be incorporated in the training of post-secondary schools. Additionally a strategy was articulated as to how entrepreneurship education can be adopted within the training of post-secondary institutions. Providing an adequate framework for entrepreneurial training within entrepreneurship education, and TVET provides originality and contribution to the field of TVET and entrepreneurship education.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-80
Author(s):  
Ileana Hamburg

Entrepreneurship education (EE) can increase students’ entrepreneurial skills and intention but research results and experience show that entrepreneurship education still pursues conservative models, rather than forward-looking ones. The COVID-19 pandemic influenced all types and levels of education and training including entrepreneurship one. The article suggests several measures to be taken, also social ones, as a result of COVID-19 and how entrepreneurship education can be improved in order to support innovations and to be available for all. Advantages of an interdisciplinary perspective in EE and of mentoring as well as contribution of disruptive innovations at EE improvement are presented. An example of a European project in this context with contribution of the author and conclusions are given.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 124-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asif Yaseen ◽  
Simon Somogyi ◽  
Kim Bryceson

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how farmers perceive and exploit business opportunities to foster entrepreneurship in developing country agriculture. Design/methodology/approach In total, 174 milk producers completed a face-to-face survey within a posttest- pretest research design. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the hypotheses. Findings Results revealed that intentions, channelled through desirability, feasibility and optimism, become a strong predictor to recognise the opportunity to be entrepreneurial; however, the presence of a munificent environment and participation in apprenticeship and training programmes are the main and direct source of exploiting farming business opportunities. Research limitations/implications The major limitation of the study is that cross-sectional data collected only from milk producers in Pakistan, signifying a need to include other agricultural sectors across different developing countries for further contextualising the results. Originality/value Research on entrepreneurial behaviour among farmers is scant. This study emphasises how cognitive heuristics guide intentions influencing the process of opportunity formation, and a munificent environment and entrepreneurial skills trainings are necessary for starting dairy farming business with modern practices.


2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 321-343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryam Cheraghi ◽  
Thomas Schøtt

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to account for gender gaps owing to a lack of education and training. Gender gaps pervade human activity. But little is known about forces reshaping gaps across career phases, from education to running a business. Such gaps may accumulate over one’s entrepreneurial career and widen or narrow due both to environmental forces that reconfigure the gap across career phases and to the gendering of competencies and benefits from education and training. Design/methodology/approach – A representative sample of 110,689 adults around the world was surveyed in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. Gender-related effects were ascertained by odds ratios estimated by hierarchical modelling, controlling for country and attributes of individuals. Findings – Education and entrepreneurial training, both during and after formal schooling, are highly beneficial in developing competencies and during career phases – i.e. intending to start a business, starting a business, and running a business. Early gaps in human capital are reproduced as gaps in careers, and continuous disadvantages in the environment repeatedly widen gaps throughout a person’s entrepreneurial career. That said, gender gaps are reduced slightly over time as women gain greater benefit from training than men. Research limitations/implications – The cumulative effects of early gender gaps in education and training call for research on gendered learning, and recurrent gender effects across career phases call for research on gendering in micro-level contexts such as networks and macro-level contexts such as institutions. Practical implications – Understanding the gendering of human capital and careers has implications for policy and education aimed at developing human resources, especially for mobilising women. The finding that women gain greater benefit than men from training is informative for policies that foster gender equality and empower women pursuing careers. Originality/value – Conceptualising the entrepreneurial career as a sequence of several stages enables the assessment of gender gaps owing to initial disadvantages in education and to recurrent disadvantages on the career path.


2015 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Maritz ◽  
Jerome Donovan

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the synergies, similarities and differences between entrepreneurship and innovation education and training programs, with the aim of challenging the context of such programs. Design/methodology/approach – This study utilises an extensive review of extant literature in the fields of innovation, entrepreneurship and education. The literature, propositions and discussion are intended to provide a bridge between entrepreneurship and innovation education and training programs and seek to address the scientific legitimacy of these education and training disciplines as separate, yet integrated disciplines. Findings – Identifies a need to reconsider the diversity and relationship between innovation and entrepreneurship education and training, primarily from contextual, theoretical, measurement, distinctiveness, content, pedagogical and typology points of view. The range of multiple teaching models and learning processes to embrace in various contexts. Research limitations/implications – The propositions allow for the combination of teaching initiatives in a theory-driven framework and their applicability to specific entrepreneurship and innovation education and training situations. Practical implications – The authors’ contribution identifies the synergies and differences between entrepreneurship education and training programs. The propositions highlight areas of contextualisation and practice-based view application, to adopt specific learning initiatives between constructs. Originality/value – The authors address a gap in the literature regarding the delineation of entrepreneurship and innovation education and training, which has thus far remained sparsely addressed in the education and training literature. The authors provide a practice-based view of propositions, developed for future testing.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Jayne Orser ◽  
Catherine Jane Elliott

Purpose This study aims to problematize how gender is enacted within entrepreneurship education and training (EET). Design/methodology/approach Using a social feminist lens, this study advances principles, a conceptual framework, assessment criteria and illustrative performance metrics to inform gender-sensitive EET programs and courses. Findings are based on a cross-case thematic analysis of two large-scale case studies conducted in Canada and Jordan. Findings The findings bridge social feminist theory and EET studies. The originality of the research rests in its utilization of the principles and conceptual framework to examine EET and to inform the development, design and assessment of gender-sensitive programs and courses. Research limitations/implications The framework and criteria do not differentiate types or levels of EET. The investigators lead the assessment of curricula and co-construction of gender-sensitive course content. Interpreter bias cannot be ruled out. Practical implications The proposed principles, framework, criteria and performance will assist stakeholders in EET program/course design, content, delivery and evaluation. Social implications Aligned with the United Nation Sustain Development Goal 5 (gender equity), the findings demonstrate the value of adapting a critical lens across all elements of EET and responding to biases in participant selection and engagement, program design and curricula. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is among the first studies to use a social feminist perspective and case study methodology to inform criteria to assess EET.


2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 329-339
Author(s):  
James Edomwonyi Edokpolor

Purpose This study aims to examine the mediating role of entrepreneurial skills developed by undergraduates (ESDU) in the relationship between entrepreneurship education (EE) and the core values of sustainable development (CVSD). Design/methodology/approach This is a correlational study that used a structured questionnaire for quantitative data collection from 399 purposively selected Nigerian university undergraduates. Findings The results confirmed the statistically significant and positive mediating role of ESDU on the relationship between EE and the CVSD. Originality/value This study has contributed to the mediating role of ESDU in the relationship between EE and the CVSD. This interrelationship can further provide a better understanding or insights into how ESDU can help mediate the relationship between EE and the CVSD.


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