Entrepreneurship education in Portugal: 2004/2005 national survey

 

Dana T. Redford *

Instituto Superior de Ciências do Trabalho e da Empresa, Escola de Gestão

 

Abstract. Education in entrepreneurship is a relatively new addition to the curriculum of institutions of higher education in Portugal. Forty-one percent of the current courses were first offered in 2003 or 2004. This recent awakening to the importance of entrepreneurship education is both reactive to the needs of the market as well as pro-active through the interests of professors. As the developing phenomenon of entrepreneurship education grows there is an urgent need to better understand and develop this area through academic research. Pedagogy, course content, the use of technology as well as other parallel initiatives related to entrepreneurship education in Portugal are the primary focus of this national survey of academic year 2004/2005. The majority (76.5%) of professors surveyed stated that their university has plans to create an entrepreneurship/innovation center. However, it is believed that roles and activities that a “center” must have to be effective are, as of yet, not well-defined in the Portuguese context. In developing future initiatives, Portugal could benefit by looking at models from other countries that have well-developed entrepreneurship educational offerings and support structures. Findings indicate that current course pedagogy in Portugal relies heavily on business plan creation and theoretical lectures and seldom makes use of computer business simulations, role-playing or internships. In addition, greater use of the Internet as a method for disseminating information to students and entrepreneurs could help “market” entrepreneurship education better and improve the perception of those students not currently taking an entrepreneurship course.

Key words: Entrepreneurship education, Portugal, universities, survey.

 

Resumo. A educação em empreendedorismo constitui uma temática relativamente recente no currículo das instituições de ensino superior em Portugal. Quarenta e um por cento dos cursos que existem presentemente foram leccionados pela primeira vez em 2003 ou 2004. A recente consciencialização para a importância da educação em empreendedorismo revela-se, simultaneamente, reactiva, face às necessidades do mercado, mas também proactiva, atendendo aos interesses dos professores. À medida que o fenómeno da educação em empreendedorismo se tem vindo a desenvolver, tem-se assistido a uma necessidade crescente para uma melhor compreensão desta área de estudo, através da investigação científica. A pedagogia, os conteúdos dos cursos, o uso de tecnologia, entre outras iniciativas relacionadas com a educação em empreendedorismo constituem o foco primordial do questionário nacional relativo ao ano lectivo 2004/2005 que foi aplicado a uma amostra representativa do universo de professores de empreendedorismo. A maioria dos professores (76.5%) revelou que as suas universidades planeavam criar centros de empreendedorismo/inovação. Contudo, acredita-se que os papéis e as actividades que estão inerentes a um funcionamento eficaz destes centros não se encontram, ainda, bem definidos no contexto Português. Em termos de iniciativas futuras, Portugal pode benificiar do estudo de modelos internacionais onde as ofertas em educação em empreendedorismo, assim como as estruturas de suporte, se encontram bem desenvolvidas. Os resultados do estudo demonstram, ainda, que os cursos leccionados em Portugal assentam, sobretudo, no ensino teórico e no desenvolvimento de planos de negócios, e não tanto no uso de simulações de negócios em suporte informático, nos role-playings ou em estágios. O uso crescente da internet enquanto método para a disseminação de informação pelos estudantes e empreendedores pode contribuir para o desenvolvimento do “mercado” da educação em empreendedorismo, assim como para a melhoria da percepção dos estudantes que ainda não frequentam os cursos de empreendedorismo.

Palavras-chave: Educação em empreendedorismo, Portugal, universidades, questionário.

 

 

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* Address: Instituto Superior de Ciências do Trabalho e da Empresa, Escola de Gestão, Gabinete 226, Avenida Prof. Aníbal de Bettencourt, 1600-189 Lisboa, Portugal. E-mail: Dana.Redford@RedfordResearch.com

Acknowledgments: The author wishes to acknowledge and thank the Portuguese Studies Program at the University of California – Berkeley for the financial assistance provided for this study as well as the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the Haas School of Business for the kindness and support extended to me during my stay at Cal.