Nailing a Jellyfish to the Wall’ – Is it Possible to Measure the Impact of Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Education?

Abstract

One of the continuing issues for enterprise educators, policy makers and governments is the assessment that measures the impact of entrepreneurial education. How do we know that a learning intervention is having the desired impact? That the investment in education is having the desired effects? Traditionally entrepreneurial education has been measured using feedback forms filled by students but just because the student enjoyed the course does not mean that the course had the desired impact. Alternatively longitudinal studies have focussed on financial gains eg: the number and value of companies created by alumni of a programme. However, the question arises: is it right to just focus on financial gain? What about the value of social enterprise or intrapreneurial activity? How about the different impact on different types of people? As an alternative it is posited that measuring changes in entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) provides a possible way to measure the impact of enterprise and entrepreneurial education while exploring issues like gender influences and differences. Given that ESE is a strong predicator of intentions and future activities it provides a possible immediate measure of impact for enterprise and entrepreneurial education without needing to wait to observe future activities. In this session we would like to explore how we could measure education in this area as well as how to use data from such measurements to design and manage education and training programmes.