Developing Enterprising People through an Innovative Enterprise Degree

Abstract

This paper examines the perceptions and attitudes of mature students in relation to a ground-breaking one-year ‘top-up’ degree in business and enterprise, exploring how those perceptions and attitudes evolve during the students' studies. It concludes with a discussion of how entrepreneurship educators can best support the development of these novel students as enterprising individuals in businesses and organizations. A longitudinal approach has been adopted for the research. Students on the programme complete questionnaires at the beginning, halfway through, and at the end of the programme, enabling the researchers to identify changes in perceptions and attitudes over time. This paper is concerned with the first and second questionnaires in the research study, which indicate positive changes in the students' perceptions of themselves as enterprising and creative individuals. Additional benefits of the programme have also been identified, such as the development of students' networking skills, the raising of their confidence in expressing their ideas, and an improvement in their ability to motivate others to express their ideas. The implications for policy makers relate to how novel enterprise education schemes can support the development of an enterprising society. Similarly, entrepreneurship educators can gain insight into how innovative workplace-based learning, linked to organizations as well as personal objectives, can be delivered.