Joseph Hassid

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European Universities Research On the
Promotion of Enterprise education

• Joseph Hassid
• University of Piraeus
• Presentation Udine
• 30 May 2006

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(No Transcript)
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• Work methods
• Literature Review
• Primary Research (Field Work
  500 cases)
• Interviews
• c.20 Good Practices
• Statistical analysis
• Partners meetings
• Closing Conference (19 May 2006
  Athens)

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(No Transcript)
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• Deliverables
• Synthesis Report and
  Executive Summary
  (Volume I)
• 7 National Reports and
  Executive Summaries
  (Volume II)
• Good Practices (Volume III)
• website www.unipi.gr/socrates/europe
• Papers, articles etc.
• Follow-up activities ()

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The partners The consortium for the E.U.R.O.P.E.
Project consists of seven EU Universities, with
strong links with the school system of their
countries
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Synthesis
of the programmes conclusions
and policy proposals
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Key Findings

• The Impact of Environment on Enterprise Education
  
• Developing Strong Successful Enterprise Education
  Programmes
• Country specific conclusions

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The Impact of Environment on Enterprise Education
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Environment Matters!
National socio-economic structures
Level of regional development
Exposure to enterprise in practice
Enterprise Intention and Knowledge
Gender
Occupation
Participation in various kinds of enterprise
education
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Environment Matters!

• In countries with a long history of
  state-sponsored enterprise development
  initiatives, educators were well-placed to
  capitalize upon a bedrock of generally positive
  perceptions of innovative entrepreneurship.
• In other countries with less extensive traditions
  of enterprise support, pupils and often their
  teachers and parents were far more negative,
  making it harder to deliver sound educational
  initiatives.
• Cultural perceptions of the entrepreneur appear
  to impact directly upon the perceived success of
  enterprise education.

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Entrepreneurs as Saints and Sinners

• For all countries we found the entrepreneurial
  persona to be a contested archetype, both saint
  and sinner
• The entrepreneur as sinner was perceived quite
  consistently across Europe, although the
  intensity and significance of this image varied,
  as a predatory, ruthless, aggressor .

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Entrepreneurs as Saints and Sinners

• By contrast, our metaphor analysis showed up
  divergence across countries with regard to
  positive perceptions of the entrepreneur.
• Cyprus the entrepreneur as engine of economic
  growth,
• Greece engine of economic growth, and some
  positive images of entrepreneurial leadership,
• Poland the entrepreneur as hard workers for the
  common good,
• Italy the entrepreneur as a friendly basis of
  the national economy.
• Ireland the entrepreneur as a creative star,
• UK the entrepreneur as a creative, persistent,
  innovative champion.

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Regionality is especially important

• The degree of economic development in a region
  impacts substantially upon the nature, outcomes
  and support for enterprise education.
• In less developed regions
• Greater admiration for the innovative
  entrepreneurial process, and for business
  starters.
• Less recognition that governmental support is
  available.
• A clear need for greater educational provision to
  counter for lower stocks of enterprise-specific
  knowledge

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Gender is only marginally relevant!

• We were delighted to find that differences
  between boy and girl pupils, although consistent,
  were of a fairly minor nature.
• This supports other evidence that gender
  differences in preference for entrepreneurship
  are starting to collapse over time and across
  generations.
• Any special programmes for girl pupils could
  still usefully pay extra attention to
• the development of a certainty of success
• start-up knowledge
• and a love of doing enterprise

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Developing Strong Successful Enterprise Education
Programmes
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The Good News!

• Strong enterprise education works.
• It acts to promote essential life skills, such as
  confidence, creativity and team work amongst
  pupils.
• European pupils are generally receptive to
  becoming entrepreneurs.
• 70 of pupils reported that they would love to
  start their own business
• European pupils also exhibit some strong
  entrepreneurial feasibility cognitions.
• being sure of themselves as regards start-up,
  reporting a high certainty of start-up success,
  and believing that they know enough to start a
  business.
• The entrepreneurial process of business start-up
  is generally viewed fairly positively across
  Europe.

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The Bad News!

• There is a major need to develop stronger
  entrepreneurial abilities within Europe.
• Extra attention needs to be paid to making pupils
  more confident as regards the ease of start-up,
  the degree of work involved, and the amount of
  tension involved.
• European entrepreneurs do not have a wide
  repertoire of entrepreneurship stories and
  frameworks to apply to the problems and
  opportunities faced by their ventures.
• Poor enterprise education was perceived by the
  interview respondents to have a very negative
  impact in terms of students attitudes to
  enterprise.

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Business Start-Up is not the same as Innovative
Entrepreneurship

• We found a marked separation between
• positive attitudes to innovative, creative start
  up from new ideas
• and more generic responses to entrepreneurs and
  small business start-up.
• The entrepreneur as a persona especially the
  innovative, creative, rapid-growth entrepreneur
  is viewed with contempt in many countries
  studied, especially by students.
• The entrepreneurial process is viewed differently
  than the entrepreneurial persona.

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Government support is not recognised

• There is a widespread and reasonably consistent
  perception amongst our respondents that local and
  national government provide very little support
  for new business start-up and growth.
• This was especially pronounced in areas of lower
  economic development.
• We conclude that much additional sign-posting to
  such local support is needed in enterprise
  education
• As well as outreach work to schools from
  state-sponsored and independent enterprise
  support agencies.

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Exposure to Enterprise Experiences

• It is critical for individuals to be exposed to
  enterprise experiences
• And this exposure MUST be positive in nature
• The involvement of external stakeholders most
  especially entrepreneurs as coaches and mentors
  is a key ingredient of the successful
  enterprise education programme.

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Supporting and Rewarding Stakeholders

• The role of teachers emerged as a critical
  element
• Schools should be facilitated in resource terms
  so as to be able to allocate teaching hours
  formally to enterprise education, and to
• train,
• pay,
• evaluate and
• reward teachers accordingly.
• Formalising enterprise education within schools
  resource-allocation models should also have the
  additional benefit of raising its credibility
• This will help earn the support of other teaching
  staff, and their tolerance of the demands such
  programmes make on students.

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Compulsory or Voluntary Enterprise Education?

• Some contradictory results!
• On the one hand, the quantitative data indicated
  that compulsory enterprise education fared better
  than voluntary programmes in enhancing students
  cognitions.
• Yet, when asked directly about these issues,
  students and teachers alike preferred the
  voluntary approach.

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Voluntary A desire for enterprise education to be
flexible, and related to choice and freedom
Compulsory A need for in-school support, strong
learning materials, and teacher rewards
Solution Voluntary programmes, resourced and
evaluated AS IF they were compulsory
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Addressing Negative Images of the Entrepreneur

• Working to alter negative perceptions of the
  entrepreneur within specific socio-cultural
  settings is a very complex undertaking.
• Bringing entrepreneurs into the classroom, and
  putting a human face to them.
• Building on the positive aspects of the predation
  image itself, by highlighting their bravery,
  intelligence, speed and glamour.
• Building up the more positive images of the
  entrepreneur-as-saint.
• For North Western Europe, this would involve
  further emphasis on positive perceptions of the
  entrepreneur as an innovative star.
• In the Mediterranean, this requires emphasis on
  the collective social and economic benefits of
  enterprise.
• Some use of example from social entrepreneurship,
  or from the co-operative movement to offset what
  is perceived by many students to be an overly
  individualistic, rampantly free-market concept.

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Country-specific learning needs
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Country-specific learning
needs

• One of the unique contributions of this study has
  been to begin the process of isolating
  country-specific learning needs.
• Our varied analyses of differences at national
  level allows us to conclude that special
  attention to certain types of enterprise
  education content is needed in each of the
  countries studied.
• The Final Synthesis Report contains many such
  country-specific conclusions, of which some
  examples are

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• Strengthening entrepreneurial intention
• Cyprus
• Addressing tenseness about start-up
• Strong need Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Italy
• Moderate need Netherlands, Poland, UK
• Building enterprise experiences into the
  education curriculum
• Poland
• Enhancing admiration of innovative, creative
  start up from new ideas
• Strong need Greece , Netherlands
• Moderate need Cyprus
• Signposting start-up support
• Strong need Greece, Poland
• Moderate need Cyprus, Italy, Netherlands

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In summary

• The Impact of Environment on Enterprise Education
  
• Environment Matters
• Entrepreneurs as Saints and Sinners
• Regionality is especially important
• Gender is only marginally relevant

• Developing Strong Successful Enterprise Education
  Programmes
• The Good News
• The Bad News
• Business Start-Up is not the same as Innovative
  Entrepreneurship
• Government support is not recognised
• Exposure to Enterprise Experiences
• Supporting and Rewarding Stakeholders
• Compulsory or Voluntary Enterprise Education?
• Addressing Negative Images of the Entrepreneur

• Country-specific learning needs

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Thank you for listening

• any questions?