Employers today expect more than just technical understanding from graduates. Increasingly, they’re looking for candidates who can think critically, communicate effectively and adapt to change. Skills like problem-solving, leadership, resilience, teamwork and digital literacy are in high demand and are directly aligned with enterprising and entrepreneurial behaviours.
Amid these common expectations of graduate skills, universities, educators and industry leaders consistently highlight the importance of entrepreneurial thinking and enterprising behaviour not only as drivers of economic growth, but as vital to a thriving, adaptable society.
- Every student can benefit from an entrepreneurial mindset
- How industry partnerships and digital credentials can close the skills gap
- Get your students workplace-ready
Enterprise-related language and its ideas are now common across higher education – from policy documents and institutional strategies to industry engagement and graduate attributes frameworks.
Many of the key competencies, such as creativity, agility, innovation, confidence and risk awareness, are central to both employability and entrepreneurial success.
Despite this, most course and programme learning outcomes continue to emphasise traditional academic outputs, such as written assignments and presentations. Of course, these are still valuable, but they don’t always provide space to develop or assess enterprising attributes in a meaningful way. Formal opportunities to nurture these mindsets through mentoring, practical experience or formative reflection remain limited across much of the curriculum.
Yet interest in entrepreneurship among students is clear. UK data consistently shows that between 4,000 and 5,000 student-led start-ups are created each year. Universities have a real opportunity, if not a responsibility, to reconsider how enterprise is positioned within their academic offering.
Where enterprise education is embedded, whether through skills-based approaches or new venture-focused entrepreneurship, it often takes different forms across university faculties and subject areas. This diversity has driven teaching innovation and encouraged a gradual shift towards more enterprising approaches to curriculum design and delivery. Below are examples of how different faculties are integrating these skills in practice:
Arts, media and creative industries (such as Reading and West of Scotland University offerings)
- Facilitating or participating in creative enterprise modules: developing business plans for studios, production houses or digital start-ups
- Guidance on freelancing: learning more about pricing, contracts, company branding and client management
- Pitching ideas
- Planning, organising and completing live projects: students and staff working with media companies and performers
Business (an example being the UWS Ignite team)
- Business modelling exercises: apply theory and toolkits towards preparing a feasible and viable business case
- Coaching and mentorship: encouraging entrepreneurs and innovative leaders from various businesses and industries to engage with students and courses
- Intrapreneurship: case studies, internships, projects where students develop understanding of given contexts, and create and innovate within organisations
- Start-up simulators: enterprise games to gain experience of launching and developing a business.
Education and social science (Glasgow University’s community entrepreneurship course, or LSE’s master’s in social innovation)
- Curriculum design: develop modules that encourage enterprising skills for programme-specific learners
- Local enterprise projects: collaborating with schools and colleges to develop new enterprises
- Social entrepreneurship: projects that educate and address societal, regional or national issues
- Community-based research: working with local groups and community initiatives
- Policy-informed enterprise: influencing policy through innovative business proposals and synergies
- Social policy: tackling societal issues with enterprising and creative solutions
Engineering and information technology (with Exeter and Dundee universities offering exciting courses)
- Cross-sector collaboration, innovation labs and hackathons: confronting real-world problems through engineering-based solutions
- Cybersecurity and AI venture projects: adopting systems and platforms to plan, organise and be informed towards given projects and context
- IP, patent and copyright workshops: learning about protecting ideas and commercialisation
- Product design: prototype design and pitching
Healthcare and pharmaceuticals (such as UCL’s Medical Innovation and Enterprise degree)
- Drug development and delivery: such as moving new medication and medical innovations from testing to marketisation in a simulated or collaborative project
- Medical product and service development: student research teams confronting challenges towards suggesting improvements to existing healthcare processes
- New healthcare sector ventures: developing apps to improve care and health education, teaching and learning
- Environmental challenges: encourage creative mindsets towards green or sustainable product innovations and developments
- Science-based innovation: learning about laboratory research and developing relevant businesses, products and services
Physical sciences (including Aston University’s provision)
- Environmental challenges: encourage creative mindsets towards green or sustainable product innovations and developments
- Science-based innovation: learning about laboratory research and developing relevant businesses, products and services
These examples complement programmes and typically highlight the expectations of, and interactions with, industry.
In practice, these examples can, as seen within the sector, result in cross-disciplinary collaborations between both students and staff. University-led projects, events and competitions often promote a community of best practice, attract sector involvement and encourage students to consider the real-world application of their developing skill sets and experiences.
As businesses adapt to technological advancements – including artificial intelligence – they’re becoming more reliant on digital systems and online platforms to remain competitive. As such, the skills employers are looking for are rapidly evolving. But while technical know-how is essential, there is a growing emphasis on enterprising behaviours such as adaptability, initiative, problem-solving and innovation.
Across the sector, from research-informed short courses and professional development programmes for employees, to graduate apprenticeships co-designed with industry, there are clear examples where enterprise development is a shared goal for both education providers and employers. The challenge is to broaden this focus, ensuring that enterprise education becomes accessible and relevant to the whole student population.
Ultimately, it is the task for course, programme and institutional leaders to ensure that learning outcomes and objectives align with enterprise and entrepreneurship as core graduate skills. This reaffirms university-wide entrepreneurial culture and strengthens the drive to acknowledge the link between educational attainment, enterprising action and employability.
Robert Crammond is senior lecturer in enterprise and director of the Transformative Enterprise Research Group at the University of the West of Scotland.
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