Value creation programmes: lessons from an early-stage implementation

Abstract

This paper explores the authors' efforts to design and deliver a Venture Creation Programme (VCP) at the University of Worcester between 2015 and 2017. The purpose of the paper is to present critical insights into the manner in which learning can be facilitated through VCPs using our own experiences as an example. The paper begins with a discussion of the authors' methodology before moving to a literature review addressing VCP's and related elements of entrepreneurial education best practice. It then shifts to a critical discussion of the authors' experiences based on insights, student and staff evaluations, and course data. In the process of conducting this review the authors found that good pedagogical design, in a VCP context, needs to focus on ensuring that academics promote constructive alignment between the curriculum that is 'taught', the teaching methods used, the learning environment chosen and the assessment procedures adopted. Only by minimising inconsistencies which link these factors will students' experiences of venture creation be fully engaging, promoting more effective, experiential and entrepreneurial development. This paper provides educators with an original and experiential insight into the design of a VCP programme and the pedagogical developments required for their successful implementation. There is considerable value herein for higher education institutions which want to design a new VCP, especially with reference to the curriculum design, experiential learning activities, types and methods of assessments and online learning environments for entrepreneurial students.

Underpinning the entrepreneurship educator’s toolkit: conceptualising the influence of educational philosophies and theory

“…A grounding in the theory underpinning entrepreneurship and the 'why' and 'how' to be entrepreneurial can be delivered by an 'about entrepreneurship approach'. Learners can develop general entrepreneurial skills and competences which can support employability (Bell 2016) and enable entrepreneurial behaviours in the future using a 'for' entrepreneurship approach; and learning by practice can enable learners to practice entrepreneurial activity using a 'through' entrepreneurship approach (Bozward and Rogers-Draycott 2020).…”

Full curriculum-based venture creation programmes: current knowledge and research challenges

“…Therein, students participate in an undergraduate (UG), or postgraduate taught (PGT) accredited programme of study through the active exploration of actual business start-up (Lackéus and Williams Middleton, 2011). This methodology is said to be a highly contextualised experience, allowing learning activity to synchronise with key moments in the venture development lifecycle (Bozward and Rogers-Draycott, 2017, 2020).…”

“…VCPs certainly offer an applied, experiential approach to learning, but they are few in number (Larsen and Holtan Lakså, 2021), and although there is a suggestion in the literature that they have a positive impact on students (Bozward and Rogers-Draycott, 2020) ultimately, there is limited supporting evidence (Lackéus and Williams Middleton, 2015; Haneberg et al. , 2019).…”

“…, 2019). In addition to this, questions pervade regarding the best ways to structure these courses (Morland and Thompson, 2016; Bozward and Rogers-Draycott, 2020; Lackéus, 2020), the student characteristics and institutional context of VCPs (Bell, 2020), and the factors which are critical to their success (Aadland and Aaboen, 2020).…”

Experiential Learning for Entrepreneurship

“…While previous work has outlined many general characteristics of VCPs in considerable detail (for some recent examples, see Adams 2016;Bozward and Rogers-Draycott 2017;Lockyer and Adams 2014;Morland and Thompson 2016), this chapter focuses specifically on assessment practices of VCPs. If a VCP constitutes one of the most extreme forms of experiential entrepreneurship education, it should be possible to gain new insights about assessment of experiential education from studying assessment practices at VCPs more in-depth.…”