DEVELOPING "POTENTIAL ENTREPRENEURS" IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTES

Abstract

Successful entrepreneurial activities are a function of human venture and environmental conditions, since the key to improving entrepreneurial perceptions and attitudes within society and within Higher Education (HE) institutions lies in education.The purpose of this paper is to address issues surrounding entrepreneurial education in HE in Greece, and describes the delivery and evaluation of two programs. The programs were offered by a public university and a public technological & educational institute designed to create opportunities for learning entrepreneurial capacities, in order to develop a framework for the design and implementation of such activities.Research results, concerning (i) the programs' concept and (ii) the degree that the programs influence the students' knowledge, skills and attitudes towards the undertaking of entrepreneurial activities, provide useful information for academicians, educators, educational managers and policy makers, concerning the design of similar programs. The methodology used brings in the description of each program's structure (in terms of its formation, development, implementation and evaluation) and the evaluation of its effectiveness, based on a pre- and post-analysis of students' perceptions from each institution. Data were collected from 904 students, with both business and scientific-technological studies background.The analysis of data provides useful conclusions in relation to (i) the design of entrepreneurial education, (i.e. emphasis should be placed on the networking with the business world, the laboratory assistance, the mentoring process, the participants' scientific background) and (ii) the accomplishment of the two programs' objectives in "developing potential entrepreneurs", which seems to be moderately positive.Higher education, potential entrepreneurs, training, development programs