New Study Shows Need to Bolster Entrepreneurship Education Worldwide

To: NATIONAL EDITORS

Contact: Michael Chmura, Babson College, +1-781-239-4549,mchmura@babson.edu

WELLESLEY, Mass., March 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Educationand training for entrepreneurs worldwide is inadequate, according tothe Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Special Report: A GlobalPerspective on Entrepreneurship Education and Training, releasedtoday at Babson College, lead sponsor and co-founder of the GEMproject.

Entrepreneurship education is one of several key factors, alongwith access to finance, government policies, infrastructure, andothers, that influence attitudes about entrepreneurship and people'swillingness to start businesses, according to GEM. Interviews withexperts in 31 countries around the world found that in almost everycountry entrepreneurship education and training was inadequate,especially in primary and secondary schools.

In surveys with more than 100,000 individuals, GEM found that 80%of entrepreneurship education and training is provided throughformal channels such as primary and secondary level schooling, andthrough university degree programs. This is significant because mostformal training is at the primary and secondary school levels.

"Training at a young age cultivates an entrepreneurial spiritearly on, but college-level training is important too, because itvalidates entrepreneurship as a potential career path," says reportauthor and Babson Professor Donna Kelley. "Besides skill-building,training increases an individual's awareness of entrepreneurship andtheir intent to start a business, and improves perceptions abouttheir ability to do so," says Kelley.

Sixty percent of individuals engaged in entrepreneurship trainingacquire it from informal sources, which GEM defines as non credit-bearing courses at a university, local business organization, orgovernment agency, or self-study using books and Internet courses."Access to informal programs is a good thing too, becauseentrepreneurs can obtain the specific skill sets they need toachieve their immediate goals," says Alicia Coduras, from IEBusiness School in Spain and lead author of the report.

GEM also learned that entrepreneurship training is of mostbenefit to individuals in wealthier countries where theentrepreneurial environment is rich in conditions that allow newbusinesses to thrive. "For entrepreneurship training to beproductive in low-income countries, it needs to be complemented bybeneficial government policies, infrastructure, and other basicrequirements," says Kristie Seawright, GEM Executive Director.

To view the full report go to: http://www.gemconsortium.org/download.asp?fid=1005

For more on GEM go to: www.gemconsortium.org

Other GEM findings:

-- Across 38 countries, where training in starting a business wasmeasured, only 21% of the adult population had received

training.

-- Training appears to have the greatest effect on early-stage

entrepreneurial activity in wealthier, innovation-driven

countries with favorable institutional frameworks.

-- The highest levels of training were found in Finland andChile,

countries with government initiatives aimed at stimulating and

preparing individuals to start businesses.

-- Men are more likely than women to seek training.

-- Younger individuals are more likely to have received training

in starting a business, reflecting a recent rise in

entrepreneurship education in many countries' formal

educational systems.

About the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor has conducted surveysworldwide on entrepreneurship since 1999. GEM was co-founded byBabson College and the London Business School. Babson Collegemaintains a position as lead sponsor of the project, and Universidaddel Desarollo in Santiago, Chile, and Reykjavik University inIceland are also sponsors of the project.

GEM has become the world's most comprehensive research consortiumdedicated to understanding the relationship between entrepreneurshipand national economic development. It has provided the mostcomprehensive comparative data about attitudes toward entrepreneurs,start-up business activities, and plans for starting and buildingbusinesses, globally, by geographic region, and by country.

GEM publishes annual global reports and GEM national teamspublish individual country-level reports. In addition, GEM publishesspecial reports on topics including women in entrepreneurship, high-growth ventures and entrepreneurial finance.

This special report on entrepreneurship education and trainingdraws on additional questions developed around this topic for theGEM 2008 APS (adult population survey) questionnaire. Data for thisreport was gathered by members of 38 national GEM teams. The reportwas authored by Alicia Coduras, IE Business School, Spain; JonathanLevie, University of Strathclyde, Scotland; Donna Kelley, BabsonCollege, USA; Rognvaldur Saemundsson, Reykjavik University, Iceland;and Thomas Schott, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark.

SOURCE Babson College