Student Impact of an Entrepreneurship Course

Abstract

Many individuals believe that entrepreneurship cannot be taught. They believe that success is primarily depended on personality characteristics that would not be impacted by course work. This paper investigates the educational impact of one entrepreneurship course, and how it affects the entrepreneurial decisions and interest in entrepreneurship of the engineering students who took it. This compares with earlier studies that have focused on the impact of entrepreneurship courses on career decisions of students with management or other nonengineering backgrounds. This research is based on a survey of 122 engineering students who took an entrepreneurship class offered by the University during the last 25 years. Students were asked to provide their perspective on the impact this course had on their career. They were asked how the course impacted their understanding and interest in entrepreneurship, if it raised their awareness of this career choice, if it impacted the career path they considered, if it affected the career they chose, if they learned useful techniques that helped them in their careers or in communicating with entrepreneurs. with this information, an assessment can be made of the impact that this course, and the study of entrepreneurship, had on their careers. the students are also asked to describe their entrepreneurial activities since graduating. the course was the most often cited of the many choices that were given which influenced them to become involved with entrepreneurship. the conclusion of the study is that this course had a significant impact on them. Even though it did not have a major impact on the career path considered and chosen initially by the students, the result of this study suggests that these engineering students perceive they have become more interested in entrepreneurship after taking the course and many perceive to have become successful entrepreneurs. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2007.

Department(s)

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

2153-5965

Document Type

Article - Conference proceedings

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2024 American Society for Engineering Education, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jan 2007

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