Entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurship competencies and entrepreneurial activities of alumni: A comparison between the engineering and other graduates of Estonian University of Life Sciences
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Kuupäev
2019
Kättesaadavus
Ajakirja pealkiri
Ajakirja ISSN
Köite pealkiri
Kirjastaja
Abstrakt
Entrepreneurial mind-set, knowledge and skills to recognise opportunities and
implement ideas are vital competences for achieving success in the midst of rapid global changes.
The main purpose of the entrepreneurship education is to foster those competencies. The present
paper focuses on the role of the university education in developing various entrepreneurship
competences, and the share of entrepreneurs among the alumni. The aim is more specifically to
examine the relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurship competence
development in university and the later entrepreneurial activities of the engineering alumni. The
analysis is based on a questionnaire survey of alumni entrepreneurship conducted in 2016 as a
part of a programme ‘Edu ja Tegu- Development of entrepreneurial education throughout all
educational levels’. Chi-square tests, t-tests are used to compare the engineering alumni of
Estonian University of Life Sciences with graduates from other fields. The overall share of
entrepreneurs among the engineering alumni was 35.6%. The entrepreneurial activities were
impacted by the time of graduation. It had also impact of whether the graduates had received
entrepreneurship courses during their studies. In comparison with other alumni, the engineering
graduates assessed that their university education helped them develop significantly better
problem-solving skills, critical thinking, self- evaluation skills, ability to develop new ideas and
solutions and leadership skills and obtained significantly less entrepreneurial and financial
knowledge during their studies. However, in case of engineering alumni, entrepreneurship
education did not have significant impact on their entrepreneurial activities and assessments of
competences, thus indicating that other factors are in play.
Kirjeldus
Article
Märksõnad
engineering education, entrepreneurship competencies, entrepreneurship education, graduates, university, articles