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Developing entrepreneurial capabilities for the global labour market: A cross national study of IT students in the UK and Australia

Hamilton, Margaret; Gribble, Cate; Smith, Sally

Authors

Margaret Hamilton

Cate Gribble

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Prof Sally Smith S.Smith@napier.ac.uk
Head of Graduate Apprenticeships and Skills Development and Professor



Abstract

In Australia and the UK there is growing emphasis on ‘entrepreneurship’ in response to challenging economic circumstances. The current focus on developing ‘entrepreneurial’ capabilities in graduates is largely driven by stakeholder and societal desire to equip students with employability skills and attributes that will prepare them for the realities of rapidly shifting labour markets and more complex and uncertain career paths. In this paper, the extent to which IT students are engaging with the push towards innovation is explored with ‘entrepreneurship’ as a career pathway. The study adopted a mixed methods approach of an online survey and selected interviews to examine barriers and enablers to pursuing an entrepreneurial career. A key focus of the study was how sociocultural differences (gender, class, culture) influence the development of entrepreneurial capabilities. Finally, universities are providing incubators to balance requirements of students, employers and Government and students’ perceptions of this initiative are reported.

Citation

Hamilton, M., Gribble, C., & Smith, S. (2017, December). Developing entrepreneurial capabilities for the global labour market: A cross national study of IT students in the UK and Australia. Paper presented at Society for Research in Higher Education SRHE

Presentation Conference Type Conference Paper (unpublished)
Conference Name Society for Research in Higher Education SRHE
Start Date Dec 6, 2017
End Date Dec 8, 2017
Deposit Date Dec 11, 2017
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Keywords Entrepreneurship, Gender, Sociocultural, Career, Incubator
Public URL http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/1018402