Working towards entrepreneurship as an employability choice for B'U' graduates

1
Working towards entrepreneurship as an
employability choice for B.U. graduates

• Linda Byles
• Ruth Soetendorp
• Sally Weston
• Enhancing Graduate Employability
• Bournemouth University Conference
• 10 May 2005

2
Why include entrepreneurship as an employability
choice at B.U.?

• UK and EU government initiatives
• Finniston Report on Engineering 1981
• Enterprise in Higher Education changing the
  mindset 1999 HEROBC HEIF 1, 2, 3

• changing global economy
• changing regional economy
• changing student expectations
• changing employer expectations
• changing approaches to LT
• changing approaches to curriculum design

3
Evidence of entrepreneurship as an employment
choice at B.U.

• Supporting the process
• Regional/National agencies
• CRKT
• START programme
• BUIC
• Ent.Ed group
• ready to engage
• Careers N.U.S.
• Recent graduates
• Programme leaders

• Development challenges
• Design learning outcomes and assignments that
  acknowledge risk taking
• Entrepreneurial Placement alternatives
• Redesigning business units to include
  entrepreneurship

4
Entrepreneurial education ideas for B.U. 2005/6

• Undergraduate
• Review existing business development units
• Encourage participation in START programme, with
  accreditation
• Pre-BUIC entrepreneur club
• Work with NUS
• Work with Careers to encourage support for
  entrepreneurial students

• Postgraduate
• PG Cert 4 units, 2 generic, 2 discipline
  related
• Entrepreneur route through schools Masters
  degree programmes
• Accreditation of START programme

5
What is entrepreneurship ?

• a concise universally accepted definition of
  entrepreneur or entrepreneurship does not
  existthere is agreement that entrepreneurs have
  common personality traits Entrepreneurship
  needs to be defined more broadly than business
  management in that it includes creativity, risk
  taking, and innovation.
• Noll, 1993
• Characteristics of Entrepreneurship - Vision,
  Adaptability, Persuasiveness, Confidence,
  Competitiveness, Risk-taking, Honesty,
  Perseverance, Discipline, Organisation,
  Understanding
• NCE, 2003

6
What should we teach?

• Skills/Way of Life
• Selling
• Identifying opportunity
• Judging risk with limited information
• Uncertainty and complexity
• Thinking creatively
• Determination and persistence

• Knowledge
• Selling
• Identifying opportunity
• Judging risk with limited information
• Business start up
• Growing sustaining the business

7
Why should we teach it?

• Commercial Entrepreneur
• Education can help to identify and prepare
  potential entrepreneurs

• All Students
• Entrepreneurial behaviour inherent in humans
• Often beneficial to the individual and society
• Develop key transferable skills
• Help all students to achieve their creative
  potential and think outside the box
• Help all students to cope with uncertainty and
  complexity
• As uncertainty grows, the ability to behave in an
  entrepreneurial manner increases in importance

8
Developing curriculum
Behaviours
Attributes
Skills
9
this requires a careful appraisal and use of a
wider range of available pedagogical approaches
that might enhance and develop specific
behaviours, attributes and skills
Gibb (2002)
to achieve real active learning ..provide
opportunities for students to see , touch and
feel entrepreneurship at first hand
Cooper, Bottomley and Gordon (2004)