Enterprise education programmes in secondary schools in Ireland

Abstract

Purpose -The aim of this paper is to examine the perceptions and attitudes towards enterprise education at secondary level in Ireland from a multi-stakeholder perspective. The key stakeholders involved in enterprise education are teachers, principals, pupils and parents. The examination encompassed profiling the Irish educational system and the evolution of enterprise education, appraising the role of the teacher in enterprise education and the identification and evaluation of the various programmes for enterprise at secondary level. Design/methodology/approach -The research methodology adopted for this study was a subject-specific questionnaire personally administered to 95 respondents comprising teachers, principals, pupils and parents. Findings -The research findings suggest that tangible and intangible learning is obtained from such programmes, which create awareness of the possibilities for self-employment, encourage more enterprising behaviour and result in important personal skills and competency development. It also indicates very positive feedback for the need and continued development of such programmes as an important intervention in creating a more entrepreneurial mindset in students. Originality/value -The research findings add value to the empirical base of research at secondary schools by addressing a number of stakeholders. The findings highlight and provide the rationale for the need by policy makers to consider the mainstreaming of enterprise education at secondary level. Furthermore, commitment by the Irish government to the provision of increased resources, the development of programme material and teacher training are fundamental to the effectiveness of these programmes. To encourage greater participation by teachers and pupils, there is a need for formal recognition and accreditation of such programmes within the curriculum. Finally, greater awareness of the benefits of the programmes needs to be communicated to parents for them to encourage their children to participate in such programmes.

Entrepreneurship Education as a Catalyst of Business Start-Ups: A Study on Malaysian Community College Students

“…The earlier findings showed that students listed parents, career counsellors, teachers/lectures and relatives as being most influential and encouraged them to start a business. The results of the findings are consistent/in line with previous studies of Edwards and Muir (2005) and Birdthistle et. al., (2007), who pointed out that lecturers play an important supportive role in influencing and encouraging students in their inclination towards entrepreneurship.…”

“…11, No. 18;2015 whether the entrepreneurship education programme achieves its overall objective is mainly dependent on the capability of its educators (Birdthistle, Hynes, & Fleming, 2007).…”

Production of entrepreneurship in small business activities of students

“…Gibb, 1993;Cope, 2005;Heinonen and Poikkijoki, 2006), in other words, entrepreneurial readiness. Practical measures facilitate positive attitudes to entrepreneurship, the development of knowledge and skills related to entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial activity (Heinonen and Poikkijoki, 2006;Birdthistle et al, 2007). According to Draycott and Rae (2011, p. 140) learning entrepreneurship is a journey of exploration where the shared experiences of students make learning valuable.…”

Perceptions and Competence of Turkish Pre-service Science Teachers with regard to Entrepreneurship

“…In fact, these results are normally seen in terms of the absence of the entrepreneurial readiness of pre-service science teachers. In this sense, it has been stated that in-service training should be offered up-to-date information to pre-service teachers about implementation of entrepreneurship education (Birdthistle et al, 2007;Deakins et al, 2005;Hannon, 2006;Seikkula-Leino et al, 2010). Currently, it is known that many teacher training institutes lack an entrepreneurship education curriculum and, even if there is such a curriculum, there are no expert trainers who can implement entrepreneurship education.…”