Teaching Entrepreneurship: To be the Wind under Students' Wings

Teaching Entrepreneurship: To be the Wind under Students' Wings

S. Hallenga-Brink (2017).  Teaching Entrepreneurship: To be the Wind under Students' Wings. 11.

Eye on Entrepreneurs (EoE) is an ongoing collaboration between a Dutch university, entrepreneurs, investors, medium-sized companies, and vocational schools. EoE wants to be wind under the wings of entrepreneurial top talents in university, who learn to 'fly' independently within a year by doing real tasks in an authentic context in a trial and error way. They get to run a company with up to 50 employees, and a minimal turnover of 500.000 euro per year. Each talent gets a coach to support their personal development and a mentor who shares his/her own entrepreneurial expertise, the essentials in their field, like business models, finance or marketing, by a demand-driven educational model. Also, EoE's business networks are at the disposal of the student. Students are activated; already during the admission process they do their research in advance, pitch convincingly, and support their plans with solid arguments. Scouts search for potentials in universities and vocational schools, and ask them to pitch themselves/their plan for a company at an EoE board meeting to be selected. The board of EoE is supported by advisors on entrepreneurial and educational matters. Even though the set-up is still evolving, students prove to learn a lot in a short amount of time. Talents so far have been placed at companies such as an indoor climbing and active sports centre, and a megastore shopping mall. Earlier experiments with entrepreneurship education at the university have shown the importance of dialogue, respect and reciprocal learning when attempting to empower the student and activate him/her. Eye on Entrepreneurs goes beyond teaching the theoretical basis of entrepreneurship, by teaching practical skills in a truly authentic, yet guided learning environment. Besides applying domain specific knowledge, talents get opportunities to practice personal and interpersonal skills in investor meetings, dealing with personnel, and (re)starting company processes. This paper discusses the possibilities for translating the EoE concept to formal (undergraduate) education. What is pivotal? Does a formal learning context bring along advantages? Are there any problems that EoE encounters that could be solved within a university setting? An what would this mean for the competencies and teaching skills of university teaching staff? Based on a case study and case study discussion with practitioners these questions are answered.

Proceedings of the 13th International CDIO Conference in Calgary, Canada, June 18-22 2017

Authors (New): 
Suzanne Hallenga-Brink
Pages: 
11
Affiliations: 
The Hague University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands
Keywords: 
Entrepreneurship
Authentic Learning Environment
integrated learning experiences
Teacher Attitudes
Teaching Competencies
CDIO Standard 2
CDIO Standard 3
CDIO Standard 7
CDIO Standard 8
CDIO Standard 9
Year: 
2017
Reference: 
Crawley, E. F., Malmqvist, J., Lucas, W.A., & Brodeur, D. R. (2011a). The CDIO Syllabus v2.0: An Updated Statement of Goals for Engineering Education. Proceedings of the 7th International CDIO Conference, Copenhagen.: 
Crawley, E.F., Malmqvist, J., Östlund, S., & Brodeur, D.R. (2007). Rethinking Engineering Education: The CDIO Approach. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.: 
Crawley, E.F., Malmqvist, J., Östlund, S., Brodeur, D.R., & Edström, K. (2011b). Rethinking Engineering Education: The CDIO Approach. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.: 
Eye on Entrepreneurs (January, 2017). Retrieved from http://www.eyeonentrepreneurs.com/english: 
Hattie, J. (2008). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. New York: Routledge.: 
Hensel, R. (2010). The sixth sense in professional development: a study on the role of personality, attitudes and feedback concerning professional development. Doctoral thesis, TU Twente: 
Kontio, J. (2010). Inspiring the Inner Entrepreneur in Students – A Case Study of Entrepreneurship Studies in Tuas. Proceedings of the 6th International CDIO Conference, Montréal.: 
Mäkimurto-Koivumaa S., Väänänen, M. & Belt, P. (2013). Developing Engineering Education to Support Entrepreneurial Behaviour. Proceedings of the 9th International CDIO Conference, Cambridge, Massachusetts.: 
Merriënboer, J. G., & Kirschner, P. A. (2012). Ten Steps to Complex Learning: A Systematic Approach to Four-component Instructional Design. Abingdon, UK: Taylor & Francis.: 
Norrman, C., Bienkowska, D., Moberg, M., & Frankelius, P. (2014). Innovative Methods for Entrepreneurship and Leadership Teaching in CDIO-Based Engineering Education. Proceedings of the 10th International CDIO Conference, Barcelona.: 
Kozlinska, I. (2016). Evaluation of the Outcomes of Entrepreneurship Education Revisited (Doctoral Thesis, University of Turku, Finland and University of Tartu, Estonia). Retrieved from https://www.doria.fi/handle/10024/129981: 
Sarasvathy S. D. (2008). Effectuation, Elements of Entrepreneurial Expertise. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.: 
Go to top
randomness