Developing future engineering leaders: Evaluating a novel entrepreneurship education course

Abstract

Entrepreneurship education is offered to engineering undergraduates at a research-intensive university as an extracurricular course designed to train the next generation of leaders. The key ability that should be cultivated from the first year of an engineering undergraduate's education is to adopt a bird's eye view of the world, analyse its changes based on various numerical data, identify the essence of these changes, and formulate global strategies. This study aims to theoretically position the course, develop a method for evaluating entrepreneurship education, and conduct structural evaluation of the course using this method. Partial least squares/projection of latent structures (PLS) regression was used to determine the relationships between content and methods, student attributes, and essential abilities, as well as between these variables and the developed entrepreneurial/entrepreneurship competencies. Three pairs of latent factors were identified: conducting market research on the external environment – coping with uncertainty and developing a vision and strategy; receiving feedback on new draft business proposals – choosing social business; and experience in using financial statements and indicators – financial thinking. The course developed entrepreneurial/entrepreneurship competencies such as learning skills and attitudes, interpersonal skills, financial and economic literacy, marketing skills, opportunity skills, and strategic skills in engineering undergraduates. This study proposed a method to evaluate entrepreneurship education applying PLS regression to learners' deliverables, along with a diagrammatic framework for entrepreneurship education, especially for practitioners.