Student perspectives on enterprise, entrepreneurship and employability

This research from the universities of Gloucestershire and Birmingham explores how UK students understand and relate to the words enterprise, entrepreneurship and employability

Funded by the Jisc careers research grant, the study finds that students recognise clear distinctions between the three terms, but perceive them as interconnected and underpinned by a shared set of core competencies.

Key findings

• Students consistently identified problem solving, creativity, planning, motivation and communication as important across all three domains, though the emphasis placed on each shifts depending on the context.
• Employability is most strongly associated with interpersonal and workplace-readiness skills such as communication and teamwork.
• Enterprise is aligned more with creativity, initiative and the development of ideas.
• Entrepreneurship is closely tied to opportunity recognition, risk-taking and value creation.
• Students had different perceptions about where to find support for each of the terms. Employability was linked to structured, institutional support such as university careers services.
• Where to go for guidance on enterprise was less clearly defined, while students leant towards external advice on entrepreneurship, such as from mentors or those with practical business experience.
• The findings have implications for how higher education institutions conceptualise, structure and deliver support for the 3Es of enterprise, entrepreneurship and employability.

About the report

This project aimed to answer the following research questions:

• What are UK students' understanding of the terms employability, enterprise and entrepreneurship?
• What do they believe is the relationship between these terms?
• What skills, attributes and competencies do they associate with each term?
• What skills, attributes and competencies do they see as being most significant to each term?

Quantitative and qualitative data was gathered using a survey disseminated by professional networks, with a total of 103 student responses received, evenly distributed across undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral levels. The majority were home students studying in business and social science disciplines.

This research was funded by the Jisc careers research grant. If you're a careers professional planning to undertake research, you may be eligible for funding of up to £5,000.