Developing enterprising people through an innovative enterprise … · Developing enterprising...

Developing enterprisingpeople through aninnovative enterprisedegree

An analysis of the students’evolving perceptions andattitudes

Jacqueline Brodie, Susan Laing and Maggie Anderson

Abstract: This paper examines the perceptions and attitudes of maturestudents in relation to a ground-breaking one-year ‘top-up’ degree inbusiness and enterprise, exploring how those perceptions and attitudesevolve during the students’ studies. It concludes with a discussion of howentrepreneurship educators can best support the development of thesenovel students as enterprising individuals in businesses andorganizations. A longitudinal approach has been adopted for the research.Students on the programme complete questionnaires at the beginning,halfway through, and at the end of the programme, enabling theresearchers to identify changes in perceptions and attitudes over time.This paper is concerned with the first and second questionnaires in theresearch study, which indicate positive changes in the students’perceptions of themselves as enterprising and creative individuals.Additional benefits of the programme have also been identified, such asthe development of students’ networking skills, the raising of theirconfidence in expressing their ideas, and an improvement in their ability tomotivate others to express their ideas. The implications for policy makersrelate to how novel enterprise education schemes can support thedevelopment of an enterprising society. Similarly, entrepreneurshipeducators can gain insight into how innovative workplace-basedlearning, linked to organizations as well as personal objectives, can bedelivered.

Keywords: enterprise education; entrepreneurship education; innovation;students’ perceptions; workplace-based learning

The authors are with the Centre for Entrepreneurship, School of Management and Law,Edinburgh Napier Business School, Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh EH14 1DJ,UK. E-mail: [email protected]. Website: www.napier.ac.uk/Nubs/.

INDUSTRY & HIGHER EDUCATION Vol 23, No 3, June 2009, pp 233–241

Supporting the development of enterprisingpeopleThe question of how best to provide support for thedevelopment of enterprising people has featuredprominently in the entrepreneurship education literature(Kirby, 2004; Gibb, 2006). What seems clear is that noone approach to entrepreneurship education suits allinstitutions (Collins et al, 2006). Moreover, it is crucialto align enterprise teaching provision with theinstitution’s overall strategic plans. As noted byPittaway and Hannon (2007, p 1), some institutions will‘seek changes in behaviour, others changes in awarenessand knowledge, while other people prefer more tangibleoutputs, such as actual venture creation amongstgraduates’. This paper introduces a novelentrepreneurship degree programme offered byEdinburgh Napier University Business School. Thisone-year ‘top-up’ business and enterprise degree hasbeen designed so that it aligns with several of theuniversity’s overall academic objectives (NapierUniversity, 2007, p 4):

• ‘to deliver a sustainable academic portfolio’(specifically, to increase the number of part-timestudents);

• ‘to be accessible to the widest body of students whocan benefit from higher education’ (specifically, toencourage those with no family history of highereducation and to create partnerships with furthereducation colleges); and

• ‘to deliver high-quality and leading-edge learner-centred approaches to learning, teaching andassessment and learner support’ (specifically, tofacilitate customized approaches to learning andlearner support through new modes of delivery).

Much has been written on the changes in attitudes andperceptions of traditional undergraduate andpostgraduate students as they progress through theirenterprise studies (Birdthistle, 2007; Vij and Ball,2007). This paper examines interim results on how theattitudes and perceptions of mature part-time students(average age 43) studying on a one-year degreeprogramme have been evolving over the course of theirstudies. The paper concludes with a discussion of howentrepreneurship educators can effectively support thedevelopment of such non-traditional students asenterprising individuals in businesses and organizations.

BA Business and Enterprise: backgroundThe Scottish Executive (2003), the ModernApprenticeship Implementation Group, CareersScotland, Scottish Enterprise, the Skills Sector Councilsand the Federation of Small Business have all published

reports and papers in the last decade to highlight thevalue of the delivery of lifelong learning (for the mostrecent discussions in this area, see Lifelong LearningUK, 2008). In 2001, the Review of ModernApprenticeships in Scotland (Scottish Executive, 2001)revealed that Modern Apprentice students often aspiredto a university education, with 42% of the participantswelcoming progression to degree level or beyond.However, finding the appropriate ‘route’ to progress todegree level has often been difficult for vocationally-based learners (see Connor and Little, 2005). Advancedentry to degree programmes does, of course, exist in theUK, linking the academic and vocational worlds; forexample, the Scottish Higher National Diploma (HND)can lead to direct entry in year three to a relevant degreeprogramme. However, work-based awards, like theScottish Vocational Award (SVQ) Level 4, achievedduring a Modern Apprenticeship, have until now beenoverlooked as an opportunity to create a bridge betweenvocational training and degree education. Thus schoolleavers who have opted to pursue their post-16education through workplace-based learning have beendisadvantaged, and universities have been missing outon a significant group of potential part-time students.

Initial research undertaken by Napier UniversityBusiness School in 2005, in conjunction with theScottish Executive and Mackay’s Retail stores, foundthat, despite potential barriers such as the cost of thelearning and workload problems, non-traditionalwork-placed learners perceived a one-year ‘top-up’enterprise degree as an attractive option for theirprofessional development and a unique opportunity toprogress to degree level. Such positive findingsencouraged Napier University’s Centre forEntrepreneurship to pursue the development of a one-year BA in Business and Enterprise (BABE). They wereassisted by the Largs-based IBP Training Academy,which specializes in providing business and managementeducation to both private and public sectors.

The BABE degree programmeGiven the variety of stakeholders involved, the BABEdegree programme took four years to develop. Duringthat time, there were extensive discussions with otheruniversities, employers, Modern Apprentice providers(colleges and trainers) and Modern Apprentices. Amongthe key issues that were addressed in the proposeddegree structure were ensuring the in-built flexibility ofthe programme by providing multiple start-pointsthroughout the year and registration for three years toallow students to work at a pace that suited their ownneeds, and supporting learning through, wheneverpossible, a practical, hands-on approach.

An innovative enterprise degree

INDUSTRY & HIGHER EDUCATION June 2009234

The positive outcome of the consultation periodenabled the Centre for Entrepreneurship and IBPTraining Academy to seek college partners inMotherwell and West Lothian College. Both collegesbegan advising students who had achieved the relevantvocational awards (see Appendix, Figure A1, forspecific details), to apply for the ‘top-up’ degree as thenext stage in their professional development.

The learning outcomes of the BABE degree werefinalized as follows (Napier Business School, 2007):

• ‘Apply theoretical and practical approaches to thedevelopment of businesses and organizations.’

• ‘Innovate and develop creative solutions forbusiness/organizational issues in relation todelivering results.’

• ‘Develop a portfolio of knowledge, skills andapproaches appropriate to their [the students’]personal and business needs.’

• ‘Enhance personal approach to business throughimplementation and progression of continuingprofessional development.’

These learning outcomes relate closely to the BABEprogramme structure, which is currently built aroundfour separate modules comprising the 120 creditsneeded to complete the degree (see Figure 1):

• Innovation, Creativity and Enterprise (20 credits);• Business Processes (20 credits);• Business Growth Issues (20 credits); and• a workplace-based learning project (60 credits).

The rationale for the choice of these modules is thatthey address the planning, implementing and managingof organizational processes in an enterprising way.‘Innovation, Creativity and Enterprise’ is the firstmodule studied and it seeks to introduce those threekey areas and to explain their interrelatedness inorganizations. ‘Business Processes’ and ‘BusinessGrowth Issues’ examine, respectively, an organization’soperating environment to establish the functions,processes and capabilities that contribute to its success,

and the reasons why some businesses remain small andothers grow.

The knowledge and skills students’ gain from eachmodule are designed to enable them to develop theirown management expertise and apply their learning inpractical ways through a variety of flexible assessments.The ability to cross-fertilize ideas between subject areasis further reinforced through the work-based learningmodule.

The delivery of the modules is highly flexible, takingplace over a calendar year and largely done throughworkplace-based learning. Students are, however,expected to attend the university for one day per monthand other support is provided in the form of onlinematerials and additional workshops. The assessmentprocess is consistent with the flexible philosophy of theprogramme, and takes into account students’ completeproject work, action research, portfolio building andreflective logs. Appendix Figure A2 shows all themodule outcomes and their relation to knowledge,understanding, skills and other attributes. AppendixFigure A3 depicts the mapping of assessment tools andworkload in the BABE programme.

First student cohortThe BABE programme was launched at the beginningof February 2008. The students, on average in theirearly 40s, proved to be much older than had beenanticipated. In part, this was attributable to the fact thatsome students came from further education (FE)colleges. These students could not be promoted beyondtheir current position because they had no degree and sothey saw the BABE programme as an opportunity toremove this obstacle. In all, 24 students (men andwomen in equal proportions) embarked on the initialprogramme. They came from a variety of companiesand educational establishments, and most werefinancially supported by their employers for the durationof the programme. By combining brief opportunities tobe taught at the university with distance and work-basedlearning (Nixon et al, 2006), the BABE programmeenabled students to learn at degree level through adelivery mode convenient to them and their employers.It is hoped that this regular exposure to university lifewill encourage the students to become independentlearners and establish relationships with the universityfor the rest of their working lives.

Research methodsThe aim of the research discussed in this paper was toidentify how students’ perceptions and attitudes evolvedover the course of their degree studies. A longitudinal

Figure 1. Structure of the BA Business and Enterpriseprogramme.


INDUSTRY & HIGHER EDUCATION June 2009 235

approach was therefore adopted. Students were tocomplete questionnaires at the beginning of theirstudies, halfway through the programme and at the endof the programme. This phased questionnaire approachobtains snapshots of the perceptions and attitudes of thestudents at a particular point and thus makes it possibleto track changes over time. The research is qualitativeand the questionnaires contain open-ended questions. Todate, analysis of the first and second questionnaires hasbeen undertaken.

Interim findingsThe first two questionnaires revealed positive changesin students’ perceptions of themselves as enterprisingand creative individuals. The questionnaires alsoidentified additional benefits of the programme for thestudents, including the development of networkingskills, the raising of their confidence in expressing theirideas in the workplace, and an increased ability tomotivate others to express their ideas. These findingsare further explored below.

Opportunity to advance knowledge and skills, meetothers and share ideas. In the initial questionnaire,students explained their reasons for taking the degreecourse and the benefits they felt they would gain fromtheir studies. An increase in knowledge and skillsfigured prominently. For example, one student waspursuing the degree for ‘the opportunity to advance . . .knowledge at the level I find myself working at . . .’ andanother for ‘the opportunity to develop . . . entrepreneurialand business management skills’. Even at this earlystage, one student was already demonstratingentrepreneurial intention (‘gaining more knowledge inbusiness and enterprise which will allow me to focus onopening my own business’) and another student waslooking forward to ‘learning about effective techniquesand utilising them to create more business opportunities’.

Students also noted that the ‘interaction with others’was an ‘important’ factor in the programme, with onelooking forward to ‘meeting the rest of the students withbackgrounds and experiences different to mine’. Foranother, a key element of the programme was theopportunity to learn ‘from other students/organizations’and for ‘re-engagement in the formal learning process’.Experiencing ‘university life’ was also mentioned as abenefit.

Appreciation of the networking opportunities hadincreased by the time the students filled in their secondquestionnaire. Typical was the comment by one studentthat the programme offered ‘good networking andcontacts with other organizations’. The course had alsoincreased several students’ confidence levels: for

example, one cited a benefit as ‘confidence: havingcome this far, appetite and determination to completethe course’. Students also felt that they had gainedincreased motivation: many noted that they had enjoyed‘learning from other students’ approaches’ and ‘groupdiscussion’. This opportunity to learn from their peerswill be revisited later when we examine the feedbackfrom the teaching team on the programme.

Proving they can do it. In their research on ‘Becoming amature student: how adult applicants weight theadvantages and disadvantages of higher education’,Osborne et al (2004) noted that the decision to enterhigher education was not taken lightly by potentialstudents. They categorized students in six ways:‘delayed traditional, late starters, single parents,careerists, escapees and personal growers’. Followingthis categorization, the BABE students tended to be‘careerists’ and ‘personal growers’. The BABE studentsexhibited the traits of Obsorne et al’s personal growersin that they were interested in the subject (‘learningmore about business and enterprise’), wanted to ‘prove’they could do it (‘opportunity to prove myself’) and hadgrasped the opportunity to pursue the degree when itwas offered by their employers (‘the opportunity todevelop my entrepreneurial and business managementskills’). Some also exhibited characteristics of Osborneet al’s careerists, seeking better long-term prospectsthrough their decision to pursue a degree (‘apply for apromoted post in a new company’), showing an interestin their studies (‘seeing if I can rise to the challenge ofdoing a degree’) and reporting support from theiremployers, who in some cases had encouraged them topursue the degree (‘seeing how I perform outside mycomfort zone of daily life in a factory’).

Enterprising. In response to the question of whether ornot they were enterprising, initially seven of thestudents said they were not and three left the questionunanswered. However, in the second questionnaireresponse, more students saw themselves as enterprising.One was ‘getting better, more accustomed to looking forsolutions to problems’. Another even declared, ‘I ammore enterprising than I thought originally, as I nowthink I have some good ideas for moving forward andam determined to do so.’ Another, while not convincedthat he or she had reached an ‘enterprising status’, didadmit to demonstrating ‘some of the traits of anentrepreneur’ and so now felt like an ‘intrapreneur’.

Creative. The second questionnaire revealed thestudents’ new thinking about their own creativity andhow this related to business. While initially they hadconceived of creativity as solely about ideas generation,by the time of the second questionnaire they had begun



to appreciate that creativity could be supportedeffectively in the workplace. One student noted the newbenefit of being exposed to creative tools: ‘I am learningto use tools to enhance my level of creativity’. Anothernoted that he or she was ‘thinking differently andworking differently’, which would ‘result in newopportunities’. According to another respondent, aftercompleting the ‘Innovation, Creativity and Enterprise’course, ‘My understanding of creativity has changedand I now no longer attribute it to drawing or creativearts.’ Yet another noted that he or she had notconsidered himself or herself creative, but nowrecognized an ability to think ‘outside the box’. Andfinally, one student noted that he or she could now‘build on others’ ideas and concepts’.

Challenges to be faced. A key challenge, identified inboth questionnaires, was summarized by one student as‘managing the work/life balance needed to complete thecourse’. Deadlines also loomed large for students. Andsome noted the challenge of being articulate on paperwhen most of their daily communication was verbal.

By the time of the second questionnaire, studentswere still echoing their initial concerns of timemanagement – ‘making enough quiet time to completework’, as one respondent put it, was a continualchallenge. Two students noted that deadline completionhad meant prioritizing and rearranging othercommitments. One student also referred to the challengeof ‘learning to present work in a correct format’ – aproblem that most new students face, mature or not. Aself-employed sole trader on the programme highlightedher own barriers in the work-based project andexplained that she and the trainers had ‘worked outsome creative solutions’.

The post-degree future. As noted earlier, these studentstended to reveal themselves as, using Osborne et al’s(2004) definitions, ‘careerists’ or ‘personal growers’when explaining their resasons pursuing the degree.Thus at the outset many noted that they were studyingto further their career in their current organization – toput themselves in a ‘better position’, to enable them to‘apply for promotion’.

Many noted the possibility of taking an advancedcourse in the first questionnaire, or even seeking outnew employment. However, the initial aim for severalstudents was simply ‘to implement the learning from thecourse’, to put what they had learned into practice. Twostudents said that their goal was to start a business.Another had the long-term goal, after applying forpromotion, of becoming self-employed. Only onestudent’s focus was on the BA itself, with no specificcareer plans beyond that, but the student acknowledgedthat this might change as the programme progressed.

By the time of the second questionnaire, an advancedcourse was still high on the agenda. Several studentsindicated that the next step would be a Master’s degree.One thought that ‘it would have to be open/work-basedlearning’. In addition, seeking promotion wasmentioned by several respondents. Only one studentstated explicitly that pursuing a higher degree wascurrently not on the agenda.

Supporting non-traditional students: staffreflections and recommendationsIn this section we outline the lessons learned by theteaching staff on the programme, highlight importantissues they identified and make recommendations forthe refinement of the BABE degree programme. Alltutors who provided feedback had taught at bothhigher education and further education establishmentsand had had experience of what one called ‘adult’learners. All four tutors felt that the programmeconstituted a unique offering for students, providing abeneficial mix of flexible delivery methods. The factthat the programme combined face-to-face delivery andwork-based learning was also highlighted in theirfeedback.

Maturity of students and prior experience. EdinburghNapier University’s students are predominantly schoolleavers entering with formal educational qualifications.The ‘new’ learners on the BABE programme did nottake the university route when they left school, insteadacquiring vocational qualifications demonstrating keyskills and competences. The BABE student is thereforeolder and has more work experience than the typicalNapier student, but is less familiar with academicstyles of learning and assessment. The tutors highlightedthis difference: ‘These students have practicalexperience and advanced problem solving skills incomparison with more typical undergraduates, but theiracademic reasoning is not as well honed.’ Another issueidentified was that the BABE students were not at theoutset as ‘attuned to academic reflection’. Thus theytended to be ‘less reflective’ than other students.However, as one tutor commented, they tended to bemore ‘motivated’ to learn and thus in their academicsubmissions they were able to overcome the earlychallenges they faced.

Expectation of professionalism. One tutor noted aninteresting challenge for the university and theprogramme itself. There was a high expectation in theBABE students that the processes involved in pursuinga degree would be highly professional and smooth – interms of access to computers, financial processes andmatriculation. The students expected professionalism



from the moment they contacted the university and inturn demonstrated such professionalism in their ownbehaviour – in the words of one of the tutors, ‘Cohortone has exceeded our expectations in terms ofcommitment and quality of work submitted to date.’

Perceived benefits for students. One tutor noted that theprogramme allowed students to access learning ‘in away they never thought possible’, enabling them ‘togain a qualification that many of them would not be ableto achieve through the usual avenues within highereducation’. As reflected in the student feedback, thetutors thought the students would leave the programmewith ‘greater self-esteem’, ‘confidence’ and ‘a provenability to learn and apply their learning directly in theworkplace’. One tutor noted that the students’ ability toapply their new knowledge would lead ‘to impacts atwork’. Moreover, the fact that entry to the programmewas based on vocational qualifications and experienceenabled these non-traditional university students to‘gain a degree, achieve recognition of their knowledgeand skills in an academic environment’ and‘springboard to Master’s qualifications’.

Benefits for the tutoring team. The tutors highlighted arange of benefits they had gained from teaching on theprogramme. One noted, for example, that they hadbenefited from the professional recognition andachievement of a long-standing ambition. Another notedhow satisfying it was to see ‘how well the materials Ideveloped were received by a mature audience’.

It was also noted that the teaching staff benefitedfrom the ‘students’ own contacts’ and the networks andthe knowledge they had acquired in their working lives.As one tutor noted, a ‘vast range of experience andknowledge [was] brought to the classroom. It is the roleof the tutors to ensure that this is shared with allparticipants.’

Possible improvements. The teaching team was alsoasked to reflect on how the programme could beimproved. Two tutors noted that, if the resources wereavailable, they would like to see the use of video-basedtutor work, virtual classrooms with video conferencingand more use of online learning environments. Anotherfocused more on the benefits to the students’ employingorganizations, noting that she would like to have seen‘more contact with line managers of staff’ and to havehad ‘their input into the reflective practice’ – she feltthat ‘this would assist in the embedding of the practicein the organization’. In terms of adding to the course,three of the tutors thought that a choice of module mightbenefit the students, while the other thought that thearea of leadership could be more directly addressed.

ConclusionsThe Centre for Entrepreneurship at Edinburgh NapierUniversity has long sought to explore new ways of‘planting the seed’ and ‘fostering the spirit ofinnovation’ in its students (Laing and Brodie, 2007).This paper has described a one-year degree programmewhich has enabled the university to reach out to a newtype of enterprise student – the programme has attractedpeople who would not normally pursue a degree or beexposed to entrepreneurship education programmes atdegree level. Entrepreneurship educators may derivenew ideas on curriculum development from theprogramme, which also exemplifies how new alliancescan be developed between universities and trainingpartners and universities and colleges (Institute forAccess Studies, 2003) to open up new ‘markets’ inenterprise education. The implications for policy makersrelate to how novel enterprise education schemes cansupport the development of an enterprising society –allowing students to remain in the workplace in highly-skilled jobs and simultaneously pursue their ownenterprise learning to degree level (DfES, 2006). Asnoted by Cooper and Lucas (2007) ‘an innovative andtalented workforce is seen as an essential resourcefor all organizations’. It is part of our remit asentrepreneurship educators to appreciate how we cansupport this goal through our entrepreneurshipprogrammes.

ReferencesBirdthistle, N. (2007), ‘An examination of tertiary level students

and their intention to found an enterprise’, paper presentedat the ISBE conference, Glasgow, 7–9 November.

Collins, L.A., Smith, A.J., and Hannon, P.D. (2006), ‘Developingentrepreneurship education: the challenges of embeddinginnovative programmes in UK higher education institutions’,paper presented at the IntEnt Conference 2005, Guildford,10–13 July.

Connor, H., and Little, B. (2005), Vocational Ladders or CrazyPaving? Making Your Way to Higher Levels, Learning andSkills Development Agency, London.

Cooper, S.Y., and Lucas, W.A. (2007), ‘Building entrepreneurialself-efficacy and intent through education and experience,paper presented at the ISBE conference, Glasgow,7–9 November.

DfES (2006), Further Education: Raising Skills, Improving LifeChances, White Paper, Department for Education Skiulls,Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, Norwich.

Gibb, A. (2006), ‘Entrepreneurship: unique solutions for uniqueenvironments. Is it possible to achieve this with the existingparadigm?’, Working Paper 038/2006, National Council forGraduate Entrepreneurship, Birmingham.

Institute for Access Studies (2003), Evaluation of CollaborationBetween HEIs and FECs to Increase Participation in HigherEducation, Institute for Access Studies, Stoke-on-Trent.

Kirby, D.A. (2004), ‘Entrepreneurship education: can businessschools meet the challenge?’, Education and Training,Vol 46, No 8/9, p 510.

Laing, S., and Brodie, J. (2007), ‘Fostering deep learningstrategies in ‘for’ entrepreneurship education’ paper



presented at the EMFD 32nd EISB Conference, Ljubljana,Slovenia.

Lifelong Learning UK (2008), A Sector Skills Agreement for theLifelong Learning Sector Scotland Stage 5 – the AgreedCollaborative Action Plan, Lifelong Learning UK, London.

Napier Business School (2007), BA Business and EnterpriseValidation Document, Napier University Business School,Edinburgh.

Napier University (2007), Strategic Plan 2007–2010, Planningand Intelligent Service Division, Napier University,Edinburgh.

Nixon, I.,Penn, D., and Shewell, J. (2006), Workplace Learningin the North East, Higher Education Funding Council forEngland, Bristol.

Osborne, M., Marks, A., and Turner, E. (2004), ‘Becoming amature student: how adult applicants weight the advantagesand disadvantages of higher education’, Higher Education,Vol 48, pp 291–315.

Pittaway, L., and Hannon, P. (2007), ‘Institutional strategies fordeveloping enterprise education: a conceptual analysis’,

paper presented at the IntEnt Conference 2007, Gdansk,8–11 July.

Scottish Executive (2001), Review of Modern Apprenticeships inScotland: Report of Survey Findings, The Stationery Office,Edinburgh.

Scottish Executive (2003), Summary of Lifelong LearningStrategy for Scotland, The Stationery Office, Edinburgh.

Vij, V., and Ball, S. (2007), ‘Exploring the impact and effectof entrepreneurship programmes on universityundergraduates’, paper presented at the IntEnt Conference2007, Gdansk, 8–11 July.

The authors would like to thank Brenda Emslie and John Parkerof IPB Academy for their support in the writing of this paper aswell as the first cohort of the BA in Business Enterprise,Edinburgh Napier University.

Appendix

Figure A1. Entry requirements for the BABE top-up degree.

Appendix continues overleaf



Figure A2. Module outcomes mapped to knowledge and skills.



Figure A3. Mapping of assessment tools and workload for the BABE degree.



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