Is Entrepreneurial Education at South African Universities Successful?

Abstract

After more than ten years of democracy in South Africa, many of the previously disadvantaged segments of the community, especially Blacks, would have hoped that a new economic order would have been created. Instead, South Africa still has very high unemployment and even young Black South Africans with a degree are not guaranteed a job. The purpose of this research was to ascertain whether a traditional first-year university business management course with an entrepreneurial component can contribute to the entrepreneurial orientation of students. The major features of entrepreneurs and innovators are knowledge, skills and attitudes. While the imparting of knowledge and the development of skills development receive, respectively, thorough and sketchy attention in formal education, attitude is hardly addressed. The need for achievement, innovation, locus of control and self-esteem are the variables of attitude that have been most commonly used in research on business motivation and the entrepreneur. To determine the success of an enterprise education course, therefore, the change in attitude of the students can be used as a measure. The instrument that was used to gauge the entrepreneurial attitude orientation of the students was an adaptation of an Entrepreneurial Attitude Orientation (EAO) scale. The authors tested 463 students using a pre-test and post-test approach, incorporating an experimental group and a control group. The results of this study do not augur well for the improvement of the entrepreneurial orientation of students.