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Guidance supporting Europe’s aspiring entrepreneurs
Policy and practice to harness future potential

European Commission, 2008a; Volkmann et al., 2009). In North America (and
some Western European universities as well), the emphasis has been much
more on the commercialisation of research and innovation.
This Cedefop study has found that many HEIs are involved in providing pre-
start-up and start-up support for aspiring student entrepreneurs, though this is
often not as widely available as some of the other entrepreneurial interventions.
Enterprise support offered by European HEIs can be grouped into two types: pre-
start support is offered to students who have an interest in business formation but
do not have concrete business ideas; and start-up support is provided to students
with advanced business ideas and includes personalised technical support on a
number of issues, such as business plan preparation, marketing of business
ideas, preparation of funding applications, financial management of new
ventures, and legal training (e.g. intellectual property rights).
There are, however, great differences in the delivery methods of pre- and
start-up support. Such support is typically provided by:
(a) in-house enterprise and guidance experts;
(b) business incubators;
(c) entrepreneurship centres;
(d) mentors and business coaches;
These are discussed in more detail in Chapter 4.4.1.

4.4.1. Business start-up support offered by careers services and in-house
business experts
Surveys carried out as part of the study to investigate the views of policy-makers
and practitioners with a guidance remit showed very clearly that many guidance
practitioners do not have the necessary competences to support students
interested in becoming entrepreneurs. This is one of the key reasons why only a
relatively small share of European HEIs provide start-up support. Some HEIs
simply provide a referral service but others and their careers services go further
and team up with experienced enterprise coaches and business start-up
advisors.
Start-up advisors offer technical support to students and graduates. They
can guide students and graduates through the business planning process, help
them to understand the strengths and weakness of their business idea, find
sources of finance, and understand the principles of intellectual property and
company formation. Business advisors can also assist students to explore their
abilities and address the reality of starting-up a business. They are often brought
in from local enterprise agencies and are either entrepreneurs or trained as
business advisors. They make positive role models for students.

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