Assessment of Entrepreneurship education: A pilot study

Abstract

Many institutions embark on entrepreneurship education, as ultimately start-ups benefit economic growth; but institutions unfortunately lack tools and benchmarks for assessing the quality of their programmes. The uniqueness of different programmes, however, does not allow meaningful comparative assessment between them, so this study applies an assessment model that gives feedback on a case study. An in-depth case-study application of the assessment model indicated the following: Programme context; Entrepreneurial knowledge and skills; Business knowledge and skills; Approaches; Business plan utilisation; and the Facilitator, as key constructs for evaluation. The assessment identified major shortcomings and strengths of the case under investigation. The article concludes that the assessment tool accurately measured outcomes of the programme despite its specific context, and that the programme covers the basic requirements for entrepreneurial education that are required by the literature. The assessment tool has general application value. Organisations like the Qualifications Authority could use the Entrepreneurship Education Assessment Model (EEAM) to ensure that service providers offer quality programmes. Assessors and educators would benefit from better understanding of how various constructs contribute to the successful delivery of entrepreneurship education. Key words and phrases: entrepreneurial education, assessment, economic impact.