Chapter 18: Entrepreneurship Education and Training Programmes: A Lifespan Development Perspective

In the last four decades, both researchers and practitioners have proposed that entrepreneurship education and training programmes (EETPs) help in the development of entrepreneurs and new ventures (Bischoff et al., 2020; Nabi et al., 2017; Yi and Duval-Couetil, 2021). Therefore, formal EETPs have become an important feature of education provision at all levels of education, and national enterprise agencies with responsibility for the development of entrepreneurs and the alleviation of unemployment (Frese et al., 2016; Henry and Lewis, 2018; Melyoki and Gielnik, 2020). EETPs are also an important feature of the HRD literature and practice landscape (Garavan and O'Cinneide, 1994; Hubner and Baum, 2018). Researcher and practitioner interest lies in whether these programmes are effective when it comes to enhancing the supply of entrepreneurs, the successful establishment of businesses and the alleviation of unemployment through the creation of self-employment options (Campos et al., 2017; Galvão et al., 2018; Rideout and Gray, 2013). The growth in EETPs can be attributed to the increased inclusion of the fostering of entrepreneurship as a key component of most business and management schools, in addition to their prominence with national development agencies as a way of helping entrepreneurs grow successful businesses (Shane, 2010). Furthermore, changing global economic conditions have highlighted the realisation that entrepreneurship boosts employment and economic growth (Ferreras-Garcia et al., 2021; Ratten and Usmanij, 2021; Song and Winkler, 2014). Entrepreneurship is a key component of local and globalised market economies (Díaz-García et al., 2015), and consequently both education and training programmes specifically designed for entrepreneurs facilitate economic growth and develop the knowledge, skills and abilities of entrepreneurs (Harrington and Maysami, 2015; Lindh and Thorgren, 2016) who can create businesses now and into the future. It is therefore not surprising that EETPs have moved up the political agendas of many countries across the globe. For example, in a 2018 OECD Report on SMEs and Entrepreneurship stressed the importance of developing entrepreneurship competencies and the significant role that schools, vocational colleges, higher education and enterprise development agencies play in this respect.