Between the Dragons Den and the Didactic

Sharing national practices in entrepreneurship education from a study of Irish HEIs

Irish HEIs’ role of fostering a new generation of entrepreneurial graduates who are equipped to contribute to macro-economic growth through micro-economic competencies has never been more important. The ‘Smart Economy’ strategy pledges to progress the provision of entrepreneurship and management training skills in universities. However, aligning Higher Education with this goal requires the development of new approaches to overcome the challenges and barriers that are faced.

So how are Irish HEIs tackling this challenge? And what exactly is the challenge?

This seminar shares information on current Irish practices and challenges in entrepreneurship education from a recent survey of 20 Irish HEIs and takes a look at different stakeholder perspectives within the HEI from students to management.

About Maébh Coleman

Maébh joined NUI Galway’s Technology Transfer Office in 2008 to manage the Accelerating Campus Entrepreneurship (ACE) Initiative, which is a three-year collaborative project funded by the Strategic Innovation Fund. Maébh has over ten years international experience in the areas of ICT, marketing and communications, project management, and high-tech procurement as well as having several international qualifications in business and communications from Ireland, Australia and France.

The ACE Initiative aims to develop and embed innovation and entrepreneurship education in non-business programmes and will focus on developing four key areas of entrepreneurship education:
• Pedagogies and curriculum development
• Cross-faculty and multi-disciplinary collaboration
• Embedding entrepreneurship education in non-business programmes
• Organisational and cultural change to encourage and support entrepreneurial thinking.

All Welcome