THE SUCCESS OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION INITIATIVE AND THE FACTOR OF CONGRUENCE BETWEEN THE OBJECTIVES OF POLICYMAKERS AND IMPLEMENTERS: THE CASE OF SCOTTISH UNIVERSITY LEVEL INITIATIVE (Published)
The aim of this study was to investigate from the perspective of the academics implementing the Scottish University level entrepreneurship education, the effects of lack of convergence between the objectives of policymakers and that of the implementers of the initiative on the success of the initiative. It emerged from the study that most of the academics are of the opinion that entrepreneurship education at the university level would not necessarily result in increasing business start-ups, and so the academics’ objectives for the courses/programmes are not wholly in line with that of the policymakers, leading to a near failure of the initiative as graduate businesses are not in the biotechnology industries as desired by the policymakers but in restaurants and retailing. In view of the Scottish experience of lack of objectives congruence which partly account for the poor outcome of the initiative, governments that may be contemplating initiating similar schemes should have their objectives made clear to the implementing institutions; and there should also be a clearly defined relationship and channels of communication in order to ensure transparency and effective implementation and monitoring.
Keywords: Entrepreneurship education, Objectives Congruence, Scottish Initiative