The development and promotion of entrepreneurship have been strategic objectives of both the EU and Member State policies for many years. Key amongst the measures adopted is the building of a stronger culture of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial capacities and mindsets. Education and training are key drivers in this process. Yet evidence of concerted attempts to establish entrepreneurship firmly within the structure and practice of national education systems has remained scarce (European Commission, 2010). The Final Report of the Expert Group (European Commission, 2008) concludes that the teaching of entrepreneurship is not yet sufficiently integrated in Higher Education Institutionsí curricula and highlights the need for more experienced based teaching methods, more interactive learning approaches and multidisciplinary collaboration, as essential elements in building entrepreneurial skills and abilities. Industry and government are also calling for better enterprise and entrepreneurship education within university and Higher Education Institutions (Smith and Patton, 2011). However, when one examines entrepreneurship education to date, it has been accused of failing to deliver enterprising and innovative graduates (ibid.). In addition, there has been lack of sufficient research concerning the effectiveness and assessment of entrepreneurial education activities in the literature (Draycott et al., 2011; Jones and Jones, 2011). In this chapter, we examine the role of the ëIBM Universities Business Challenge (IBM UBC)í, which can be considered the UKís premier undergraduate business competition, as an example of an experiential learning environment for nurturing potential graduate entrepreneurs.
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your Elgar Online account
