Teaching the Welsh to Fish. The Reasons for, Structure of and Preliminary Results of Enterprise College Wales

Enterprise College Wales (ECW), designed by the University of Glamorgan, is an on-line, webbaseddegree in Enterprise, aimed at creating and improving entrepreneurial and managerialcapacity in the EU Objective One Areas of Wales, where such activity has been deficient. Thisdistance learning (with local partner Further Education colleges located throughout the ObjectiveOne areas) platform has been created with the aim of aiding individuals and communitiesgenerate their own economic development solutions, through the tools of entrepreneurship andpromotion of entrepreneurial behaviour.This paper will examine the issues surrounding ECW, concentrating upon the need for increasedentrepreneurial activity and capacity, the reasons for using the platform of web-based learning,and the characteristics of the first cohort of students undertaking the course. From this,conclusions are drawn and the requirements for future research into ECW are established.[...]