Entrepreneurial Program Learning and Career Choice Intentions

Entrepreneurship education is essential for the development of entrepreneurial skills and an entrepreneurial mindset among tertiary students. Universities, all over the world nowadays, offer entrepreneurship courses (compulsory or elective) and other educational offerings. Research findings regarding the impact of these offerings on students’ anticipated entrepreneurial learning outcomes though, are inconsistent, as some researchers report positive results, whereas others report even negative effects. Additionally, the share of nascent and active entrepreneurs remains relatively low among tertiary students, and only a small share of students would like to become entrepreneurs directly after their studies. The aim of this paper is to examine students’ perceptions on program learning as an indicator of entrepreneurship courses effectiveness, in different groups of students (active, nascent, dreamers and abstainers) and identify those that benefit the most out of offerings. For this purpose, a sample from the “Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students’ Survey” (GUESSS 2018) is used, including participants from 50 countries. According to the results, active, nascent and intentional entrepreneurs (dreamers) have greater perceived benefit from university offerings, than non-intentional entrepreneurs (abstainers). Also, those choosing the founder career option on the long term seem to have a greater benefit, compared to those choosing a career as a founder right after studies. Moreover, compulsory courses as part of student studies seem to have more benefit than elective courses. Finally, only small differences were observed between business and engineering students.