Calibrating entrepreneurship education for a constantly changing world

Abstract

A key purpose of education has long been to ensure that students are well prepared for the workforce. In an unchanging context where tasks, roles, and expectations are stable, creating an education program that prepares students for the workforce can be achieved relatively easily, and once in place will remain appropriate if the context is stable. The challenge is in educating students for work environments that are rapidly changing and where the expectations placed on them are uncertain and ambiguous. The concept of calibration is the process of ensuring something is in tune or in sync in the intended way. An example from music would be calibrating an instrument to ensure it generates the intended notes. The same approach can be applied to education to ensure that educational approaches used are in tune with the requirements of students who enter the workforce. This research therefore sought out students who had graduated from two master's programs and had been in the workforce for less than a year to better understand what skills and education they felt were missing from their education and what skills they felt their education had provided. In short to hear how well equipped the students felt and whether the program was calibrated to their needs, in carrying out this research it highlighted several conundrums relevant to all entrepreneurship educators.