Entrepreneurship education in the The School of Economics and Business Administration

University of Tampere, founded in 1925, has established its position as a multi-disciplinary university specialized in the problems and research on the interface between public and private sectors and with strong ambition to be one of the leading universities in Europe in this field. The connection between teaching and research is seen as its significant characteristic and strategic strength. It strategy emphasises creating participatory and innovative research culture, boosting connection between research and teaching as well as enhancing internationalization.

The faculty of Economics and Business Administration is high on the list for best attracting new students. It has expertise in the critical areas of eNTRENET ecosystem such as business competencies, shared leadership, strategic and knowledge management, as well as in immaterial property rights.
The School of Economics and Business Administration specialises in fostering entrepreneurship as well as developing business competencies and new models for the practices of the public-private interface. It has also established long-term international relationships and has, for example, its own Asia Business Academy.

 

Entrepreneurship Education in Finland

Small companies form 99 % of all companies in Finland and employ about half of the employees. They have a crucial role in creating a new work and new work places.

According to the European Commission report (2000) developing and promoting the atmosphere of entrepreneurship and its potentials are one of the key aims in all educational levels in future. It was shown in the report that Finland is the only country who is committed to this challenge in all-round education and vocational second-degree level education. The Entrepreneurship policy programme in 2003 will determine how to achieve the goal in practise.

Entrepreneurship education at the School of Economics and Business Administration is a national coordinating university of entrepreneurship education in Finland. It serves as a national expert in this field by providing research and teaching for national university network, by organising national and international research conferences and symposiums. It has its own scientific collections, library programme, virtual learning environment and own publication series with Finnish and international publications.

The strategy of entrepreneurship education strives for developing research and teaching in national and international collaborative networks. Its research areas focuses on entrepreneurial virtual pedagogy, the processes of entrepreneurial practices and processes as well as new methodological innovation for getting access into these processes. Thus its core areas support the evolution of eNTRENET

National networks consist of several national, regional and local partners like universities, more specifically their faculties and units, polytechnics, different organizations and associations for developing entrepreneurship, regional and local authorities, the Ministry of Education as well as the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
International networks consist of universities from Baltic countries, European entrepreneurship research network and the European network dedicated for training and education. Additionally entrepreneurship education has joint projects with specific universities from the USA, Canada and India.

Entrepreneurship – a new area in the field of vocational and professional education

Entrepreneurship education has slightly less than a 30-year history in science. Discussions about entrepreneurship education have been revolved within entrepreneurship research. There has been an increase of teaching in entrepreneurship in university education which has created and inspired research around entrepreneurship teaching in higher education.

According to Scott, Rosa and Klandt (1998) so far we have only gathered experiences on various case studies and now there is a need to focus on the basic dimensions and concepts. According to them, the present research on entrepreneurship education can be divided into three categories: education about, through and for enterprise.

If an entrepreneur is taken as a point of departure, the key dimensions concern the interplay between the actor, the process and the outcome. Considering what to learn refers to the substance of entrepreneurship education i.e. the whole phenomenon or some of its parts or aspects, including the process itself and considering how to learn refers to the behavioural aspects of the actor, the entrepreneur and his/her experiences, i.e. the actor learns about entrepreneurship through entrepreneurial processes. Thus, we can say that the key dimensions of entrepreneurship education refer to what to learn and how to learn and the qualities of the three elements relate to the phenomena the field of entrepreneurship studies is gathered around.

The forms and nature of entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship can be looked at in wider cultural context. Three forms of entrepreneurship can be defined. The forms have developed during historical periods and they interact with each other.

1. Entrepreneurship
The small business management and ownership, the interplay between individual and business

2. Individual entrepreneurship
Self-oriented entrepreneurship, an individual’s self-oriented behaviour

3. Organisational entrepreneurship
Organisations collective behavior

Intrapreneurship
As interplay between organisational and individual entrepreneurship

The nature of entrepreneurship has endured the same during periods of time in all forms of entrepreneurship. All the forms of entrepreneurship are based on human action. As an individual level entrepreneur is characterized as free, unique and he/she has a holistic relationship with the environment. By opportunity recognition, new venture creation, risk and acquisition and allocation of resources the entrepreneur creates something new, which have a important and positive impact on himself/herself, people around him/her or society level. The key is that entrepreneur searches and finds possibilities from surrounding reality which is unrestricted. Dynamic and action are the core elements of entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship education as lifelong learning

From a point of view of education, the core of research consists of dynamics and interaction between entrepreneurial individual and collective action. The learning related to these is called entrepreneurial pedagogy. Context defines the way the forms of entrepreneurship and their combinations are linked with the learning process.
The focus is on different forms of entrepreneurship according to individual’s age, stage of life and environment. His/her earlier experiences and future expectations shape the learning process. It is essential, that knowledge of context, pedagogy and policy without the actual action is not enough to fulfil the criteria of entrepreneurship education. Thus, entrepreneurship education involves the whole lifetime of an individual and focuses on all stages in the lifecycle of a company.

Entrepreneurship research searching its European roots

The discussion between entrepreneurship and education has strengthened towards the end of the 20th century. Entrepreneurship research and education in modern time have been USA oriented. The latest survey of European Foundation of Entrepreneurship Research indicates that entrepreneurship education in Europe has been growing dramatically over the past five years and it is expected to continue growing. It shows that there is a need to find European tradition on entrepreneurship research and closer connection to the problem of human action. European tradition stresses on cultural consideration, processes which involve individual and collective human activities, complexity of reality and analysing activity. European tradition is also characterised as exploring a methodological solutions which make possible to research these processes.The forms of entrepreneurship emphasize the central role of entrepreneurship in the field of vocational education. Entrepreneurial know-how is essential for a contemporary and future professional from a society, public and private organisation or an individual’s point of view. In European Union’s programs entrepreneurship is linked with active citizenship and social participation. In the the The School of Economics and Business Administration at the University of Tampere media education affects its development by supporting new ways of learning.