Page 23 - guidance-supporting-europe-s-aspiring-entrepreneurs-policy-and-practice-to-harness-future-potential

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

means of raising awareness of entrepreneurialism: award ceremonies are
normally associated with high profile events or prizes.
Entrepreneurship degrees are primarily the domain of business schools.
However, some HEIs have taken an interdisciplinary approach to
entrepreneurship learning, engaging students across a range of faculties. While
specialised courses offered to humanities and social science students remain
rare, examples can be found of experiential entrepreneurial training embedded in
the curriculum for all science, engineering, humanities and social science
students.

Pre start-up support
Pre start-up support that aims to create growth companies and commercialise
research, is important for HEIs. They need to deliver business support to
students with advanced business ideas. Business incubators and HE
entrepreneurship centres offer a range of technical, practical and financial
support, alongside advice and guidance. Incubators/enterprise centres were
found in most European countries.
Business advisors employed by career services can support students and
graduates through the business planning process, helping them to understand
the strengths and weaknesses of their business idea, find investment finance,
and understand the principles of intellectual property and company formation.
Few examples of HEIs were identified which provide this support in a systematic
manner; those which have a unified careers service/enterprise support unit
appear to have cohesive approaches.

Supporting career management of aspiring and new

entrepreneurs

Career management skills (CMS) support individuals in processing educational
and occupational information as well as in applying it to career-related decisions,
choices and transitions. Such skills can be helpful for novice and prospective
entrepreneurs to understand and appreciate their potential as an entrepreneur
and to become more familiar with how entrepreneurs network, think and learn.
CMS also helps individuals improve their ability to deal with change, overcome
problems and become more aware of the opportunities for help, advice, grants,
loans and what needs to be done to access them. Career management skills are
important to new business formation, sustainability and growth.

17