Student perceptions of enterprise education in Poland

This study appraises the delivery of a dedicated enterprise education module to a group of Polish students and evaluates its impact and effectiveness in encouraging previously nascent entrepreneurial activity. Current enterprise education debate questions the effective construction of entrepreneurship into the curriculum. This paper profiles a practical example of an enterprise education programme within Poland and focuses on students entrepreneurial motivations, prior experiences and future entrepreneurial intent. The module entitled Starting a New Enterprise (SANE) was developed in 2005 to support both e-learning and traditional face to face delivery. The aim of the module was to provide students with a practical understanding of entrepreneurial skills and the business start-up process. This study presents a qualitative and quantitative review of the Polish students’ reflections on the experience of enterprise with the SANE module. The study found that Polish students had extremely limited prior entrepreneurial experiences and expectations and welcomed the opportunity to undertake entrepreneurial education. Overall, the findings suggested that entrepreneurial education does have the potential to inform and encourage students to consider the adoption of an entrepreneurial career. This paper provides significant evidence into the effectiveness of specifically developed enterprise education as a mechanism to encourage nascent entrepreneurial activity. The critical success factors to successfully imbed enterprise education are discussed.[...]