Research at Kingston University

Abstract

The development of entrepreneurship education in the UK is viewed through the lens of one particular educational programme within the WestFocus consortium of Universities in South and West London. Two separate but complementary paths of entrepreneurship education are highlighted. The increasingly well travelled ‘pragmatic’ road, which encourages the development of enterprising and entrepreneurial behaviours, attitudes and skills is contrasted with the less travelled ‘conceptual’ road, where our understanding of the phenomenon of entrepreneurship is challenged and explained. We re-trace the journey undertaken by entrepreneurship educators at Kingston University and its WestFocus partners, and highlight the need for a balanced approach towards entrepreneurship education. Such an approach would be neither overly voluntarist nor determinist, and would be as candid about what we don’t know as to what we do know. We suggest that unlike the poet’s ‘traveller’ – who cannot take both roads, entrepreneurship education can benefit most by reaching the fork in the road and taking it.