Student attitudes towards enterprise education in Poland: a positive impact

Abstract

Purpose -This paper aims to appraise the delivery of an enterprise education course to a cohort of Polish students evaluating its impact in encouraging entrepreneurial activity. The Polish economy continues its expansion with adoption of free market economies post communism. To encourage this growth, entrepreneurial activity must be encouraged within the next generation of entrepreneurs namely the student community. The course entitled Starting a New Enterprise (SANE) was developed to provide entrepreneurial skills and knowledge of the business planning process. The enterprise education literature questions its effectiveness in encouraging entrepreneurial activity. This study profiles the SANE course focusing on students entrepreneurial motivations, prior experiences and future intent. Design/methodology/approach -This study presents a quantitative review of the Polish students' reflections on the experience of enterprise within the SANE course. The basis for this investigation involved two semi-structured questionnaires undertaken prior to and on completion of the course. In total, 59 students completed the first questionnaire and 50 respondents the second. Findings -The study found that Polish students had limited prior entrepreneurial experiences and expectations and welcomed the opportunity to undertake enterprise education. The findings suggested an equal proportion of male and female students aged 18-24 favoured a future entrepreneurial career. Moreover, a quarter of all respondents welcomed an immediate entrepreneurial career on graduation and found value in the development of a business proposal. The findings suggested that entrepreneurial education informs entrepreneurial intent and career aspirations. Originality/value -This study provides evidence into the effectiveness of enterprise education courses as a mechanism to encourage nascent entrepreneurial activity.

Predicting the Entrepreneurial Intentions of University Students: Applying the Theory of Planned Behaviour in Zambia, Africa

“…For example, EI has been explored among Russian students [25]; Polish students [26]; Spanish and Taiwanese students [27]; and, Chinese students [28]. There are also other studies con- Scholars are quick to point out that since the environmental contexts are different between developing and developed nations, differences will arise in EI and their antecedents.…”

In Search of Alignment: A Review of Impact Studies in Entrepreneurship Education

“…This review demonstrates that teaching/learning activities can be divided into several categories based on the level of detail found in description. The activities range from unspecified [31] to broadly described [35] to well-articulated [28,29,34]. With regard to the broadly outlined methods, Souitaris et al ([35], p. 574) indicate that "a wide range of activities across all four components (formal teaching of courses, business planning, interaction with practice and university support)" were offered in the program.…”

“…Second, our analysis also reveals that the interventions vary greatly in duration and at times do not match what one would consider a program or course. For instance, a bundle of studies did not report on the time period for the intervention [25,29,30]. Yet, others define a course that may last between three days or twenty-four hours of class in total [1] to one semester [31].…”

“…With regard to more accurate objectives, some educators set to raise students' awareness about entrepreneurship and its key related issues [1,8] or encourage an enterprising student mindset [25] as their objective. Others take a step forward and divide their objectives into two parts: encourage students to consider an entrepreneurial career and provide entrepreneurial skills and knowledge of the business planning process [29]. For example, Fretschner and Weber [31] take a composite approach to stating objectives.…”

“…Some studies utilize numerical impact measures. Jones et al [29], for example, aim at evaluating the impact of the program by measuring the difference of entrepreneurial career aspirations before and after the course using the Likert-type scale and percentages. Mohamed et al [30] measure participants' perceptions toward the program using scores from a Likert scale of 1 to 7, indicating that the program develops interest in entrepreneurship (97% of the respondents), provides its participants with the requisite skills to carry out proper business practices (89% of the respondents), and changes students' perceptions from taking jobs offered by the government and private sector and becoming entrepreneurs instead (86% of the respondents).…”