Learning to be entrepreneurial: Can you teach entrepreneurship?

The Junior Achievement program is one example of an education in entrepreneurship. Perhaps the greatest gain for individuals from this kind of education and entrepreneurship is the ability to support an individual’s autonomy, providing greater sway in molding one’s opportunities and circumstances in a favorable way. But can it be taught?

In trying to learn about this, there is first a body of research on this, there are some examples that could be interesting to explore, and one could also take into account just an intuitive perspective.

What does research say?

In a recent review which brings together a large amount of data from a wide range of studies on the effects of Entrepreneurship Education and Training, it is shown that these efforts, these educations, really do have an effect on the abilities, attitudes and the entrepreneurial performance of the participants.

More specifically, entrepreneurship education produced among the participants increases in their knowledge and skills, increases in their positive perceptions of entrepreneurship, as well as a boost in their intention to become an entrepreneur.

It should be important that both specific skills related to entrepreneurship as well as the attitude towards and the motivation for being an entrepreneur can be targeted by means of this education, which was also the case here.

In the end, one would also want to see that the education gives rise to improvements in the performance of the firms that are started by the former participants in the education.

Luckily, entrepreneurship education was shown to increase the likelihood both of the participants actually starting a firm and it also increased the performance of these ventures as measured by income and other measures.

The authors summarized their findings:

“Our results have two important practical implications. First, the positive relationships between EET and both entrepreneurship-related human capital assets and entrepreneurship outcomes should represent good news for governments, universities and colleges, and private organizations that have invested heavily in the development of EET programs over the past several decades.”

Another interesting piece of research centers on the educational program forwarded by the Junior Achievement organization and provides a perspective on the long-term effects of the program.

The Junior Achievement organization is especially interesting since it provides high school students, among others, with a practical education, letting them experience the entire entrepreneurial process from the early stages of idea generation and group formation to product development, marketing, sales and fair attendance.

The present study investigates the long-term effects of this education, whether or not, after some ten years, there were positive effects from participating in the program on the behavior and performance of the participants.

As hoped for, the authors find a positive effect on both the likelihood of starting a business and on the size of the incomes of these firms. This study is perhaps not as rigorous as the one above but it yielded some considerable results.

Examples of entrepreneurship education

This Junior Achievement program, again, is one of the more interesting opportunities for young people to learn about entrepreneurship in an entrepreneurial program.

What is especially interesting about this program is that it goes for an entire year and that the students, unlike many other entrepreneurial educations, will let the students try the process from beginning to end.

They are likely to learn while at the same time having a lot of fun in the process, a process which involves writing business plans, decorating their fair booth and participating in competitions relating to their small business or their product.

Although they do explore entrepreneurship in a safe environment and receive a fair amount of support, the students in the program still need to exhibit a fair amount of initiative and problem-solving. And this is just one example of many opportunities for entrepreneurship education.

Business incubators sometimes provide some basic education as well as ongoing support from mentors. Business incubators have proved to be highly successful especially in nurturing and developing tech-related companies.

Yet another interesting example is the School for Social Entrepreneurs in the UK, a school which supports social entrepreneurs that have an idea and a fair amount of ambition, by providing them with a bit of capital and guidance in order for them to be able to get their respective venture off the ground. This has also been fairly successful and the concept has been extended to other countries.

An intuitive take

One could also ask if the particular skills needed in entrepreneurship can be taught and learned?

Some skills that could be especially important in entrepreneurship are problem-solving abilities, proactivity and planning abilities, creativity and optimism, motivation and drive, awareness of one’s strengths and weaknesses, resource-acquisition skills, communication skills, relational skills and social skills.

Investigating this more deeply is not possible at the moment, but it seems likely that people can make significant improvements in many of these areas. It seems likely that people can learn the very particular skills that are needed, as well as many of the more general skills that are needed.

It also seems likely that entrepreneurial education should arouse or stimulate an interest in entrepreneurship among many students.

Then, as supported by the research and the examples, it seems as if entrepreneurship education does produce the intended and desired effects.

It seems as if education and training in entrepreneurship strengthens the attitudes and tangible skills of the participants and ultimately boosts their future performance in entrepreneurship. Future studies will be likely to provide additional information on which kind of education and pedagogy is the most effective.

Sources/further reading:

• Martin, McNally and Kay, 2013. Examining the formation of human capital in entrepreneurship: A meta-analysis of entrepreneurship education outcomes. Journal of Business Venturing.
• Elert, Andersson and Wennberg, 2015. The impact of entrepreneurship education in high school on long-term entrepreneurial performance. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization.