Entrepreneurship Education: Towards an Industry Sector Approach

Purpose – This paper considers the requirements for an industry sector approach to entrepreneurship education – The Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Sector. We present a modified Process Framework for Entrepreneurship Education focusing specifically on ICT. The primary components of the Process Framework are described (inputs, process and content, assessment and outputs) to assist in the design of relevant and targeted entrepreneurship education courses to create an entrepreneurial mindset for graduates in this sector. This Framework can be modified to suit courses focusing on other industry sectors. Methodology – Based on experiential learning and industry sector knowledge of the authors, they modify an existing Process Framework for Entrepreneurship Education. Findings – The Process Framework for Entrepreneurship Education can be modified for a specific sector. Inputs to the process include the personal profiles and personality characteristics of the students. The recognition that particular skills may be required within a sector should be catered for when developing the content focus of the process. Furthermore, the teaching focus should include action learning, problem based learning and discovery teaching. Consideration of all of these elements will help ensure that the entrepreneurship teaching process will develop entrepreneurialfocused students within the sector. Entrepreneurship education is a flexible learning mode easily modified to accommodate changing workplace and employee needs. The use of the process framework provides for a set of useful and relevant guidelines on the key aspects which should be addressed and used as a checklist in attempting to modify and design suitable and relevant entrepreneurship education programmes for specific industry sectors. Practical Implications – This paper is aimed mainly at the educator, as it focuses on the educational process for entrepreneurship. It strongly focuses on the need of the ICT student as a stakeholder in the entrepreneurship education process. Educators need to consider its efficient implementation to ensure that sufficient depth of material can be covered. It also presents issues and challenges for educators in the design and delivery of customised and targeted entrepreneurship programmes. It provides a template for modification within other subject disciplines. Originality /Value of research – This paper demonstrates that educators need to consider entrepreneurship for industry sectors, thus presenting the requirement for an inter-disciplinary approach to entrepreneurship. It does so through the refinement of an existing Process Framework for Entrepreneurship Education, taking the specific example of Information and Communications Technology. While the framework can be modified for use in other sectors, this paper presents the integration of and highlights the synergy that exists in the linking of entrepreneurship with the technical disciplines. Article Type: Research Paper