Variety of entrepreneurial skills measured in the entrepreneurship education literature
Abstract
Purpose
Having a varied set of skills is essential for becoming and succeeding in entrepreneurship, and developing students’ entrepreneurial skills is a key objective of entrepreneurship education programs at universities worldwide. Moreover, measuring the learning outcomes of education is essential for designing effective training. This review provides a framework of the variety of skills measured in the entrepreneurship education literature.
Design/methodology/approach
We reviewed the entrepreneurship education literature and identified 79 studies that used skill-related measures. We identified, grouped, and operationalized entrepreneurial skills related to the entrepreneurial tasks of sensing, acting, and mobilizing under uncertain conditions.
Findings
We synthesized the current knowledge related to developing various entrepreneurial skills and provided a framework of ten types of entrepreneurship-related skills measured in prior studies of entrepreneurship education initiatives. We showed that entrepreneurship education develops various skills relevant to entrepreneurship and other concepts, indicating the value of entrepreneurship education for increasing students’ general skill level.
Originality/value
Our framework provides a valuable tool for discussing what skills-related training should be included in entrepreneurship education curricula and how the learning outcomes from entrepreneurship education can be measured. Focusing on students’ entrepreneurial skills is closer to entrepreneurial action than intentions or mindsets, and skills are a more realis-tic and inclusive outcome of entrepreneurship education than start-up rates and self-employment. Thus, entrepreneurial skills are a useful concept for clarifying and measuring the specific learning outcomes of entrepreneurship education.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Engage—Centre for Engaged Education through Entrepreneurship, the Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills for their generous support. Their encouragement and resources have been instrumental for this research project. Special thanks are also due to Karolina Lesniak, Sølvi Solvoll and Kari Djupdal for their invaluable contributions to setting up the research framework and their assistance in coding the articles. Their expertise and dedication greatly enhanced the quality and depth of the research project and this study.
Citation
Steira, I.M., Wigger, K. and Rasmussen, E. (2024), "Variety of entrepreneurial skills measured in the entrepreneurship education literature", Education + Training, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/ET-09-2023-0374
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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