Reflexiones sobre Educación en Emprendimiento. Nueves Fronteras en la educación en emprendimiento y en la docencia en emprendimiento

Abstract

The growing demand for training in entrepreneurship has provoked a sharp increase in the number of such education programmes being offered, with significant investment of resources and high expectations of their results. However, few studies – and of limited inferential robustness and breadth – have examined the short and long-term outcomes of these programmes on the attitudes, behaviour and subsequent careers of their students. Equally scarce are studies to evaluate the impact of the entrepreneurship-support strategies provided by colleges, universities and government. Consequently, what knowledge we have of the theoretical foundations that would make education programmes in entrepreneurship more effective and the teaching methods and procedures to promote entrepreneurial behaviour more suitable, and our knowledge of the results and effects achieved, is both limited and weak. Further data and analysis are needed to better understand the crucial forces and influences that make individuals more confident in their abilities and identify themselves as entrepreneurs. Analyses of practical experience should also be made in order to devise and improve mechanisms to promote the entrepreneurial spirit and self-employment. This paper offers an overview of the evolution of entrepreneurship and of diverse approaches to teaching this concept. Our aim is to clarify the importance of properly establishing the goals sought in education for entrepreneurship, the teaching tools and methods to be used in this process and the need to know whether these goals are achieved and, if so, under what conditions.