European university-based entrepreneurship training programmes: Best practices

The aim of this paper is through a qualitative study to determine how efficient academic entrepreneurship training occurs in an academic environment and how these programmes are structured and organised. Data from 20 different university training programmes at 12 European countries were analysed. We used a check-list to gather information on these items: Promoter, programmes, target groups, key objectives and contents, actors involved, timing and budget, funding structure, staff involved, and support services. Data were collected via interviews with project managers and people in leading positions in the training organisations; secondary data such as documentation, strategic plans, brochures, and evaluation reports were also collected. Among other things, the results show that entrepreneurship training usually occurs in cooperation with regional actors, that the main targets are graduate and post-graduate students, and that they are financed by various resources – mostly of public origin. There seems to be no one best way of organising entrepreneurship training programmes. Major implications of this study are to address clear training objectives and to base the content of programmes on specific characteristics of the local or regional environment. It is also important (i) to anchor the initiative in the university curriculum and (ii) to set up a networking group of regional actors to facilitate creation of the entrepreneurship process.