The Effect of the Network and Technology Oriented Applied Entrepreneurship Program on Entrepreneurial Knowledge and Skill Development of the Students

Abstract

In the framework of Turkey Entrepreneurship Strategy and Action Plan, there is highlighted to the importance of education of entrepreneurship and there is a need for practical training programs. The Network and Technology Oriented Applied Entrepreneurship Program was carried out as an exemplary model to answer the purpose. The aim of this study is to examine the effect of entrepreneurship knowledge and skills on development. Data were collected with a questionnaire (Evans, 2009; Linan et al., 2008), pre and post-test were applied. There are 162 participants who answered both pre-test and post-test. Although the entrepreneurship information of the participants has been improved, there has not been a significant improvement in entrepreneurial skills. Similar to previous studies, this study also showed a strong relationship between entrepreneurial knowledge and entrepreneurship skill in both pre-test and post-test data. However, in the ∆test formed from the post-test pre-test difference, the relationship between the change of entrepreneurship knowledge and the change in entrepreneurship skills was found to be weak. It was found that the knowledge development provided by the trainings was weak in predicting skill development. It can be said that the entrepreneurship education carried out is not healthy enough and carries a risk of not leaving any permanent impact on the participants. As a result of the findings, revisions that need to be realized in the design of entrepreneurship trainings are discussed.