Can entrepreneurship be taught? This question has been asked many times and people often believe you have to be born with just the right mindset and personality to take the leap and launch a new business from scratch. We beg to differ.
In 2009, the Global Entrepreneurship Study revealed that entrepreneurship rates in Hong Kong were alarmingly low, hovering just above 6.5 per cent of the adult population. In the same period, entrepreneurial activity in the adult population of the US was twice as high and, in China, as much as 5.5 times higher. Learning this, Hong Kong launched an extensive campaign to facilitate and encourage local entrepreneurial activities. Since then, the level of support for such activities has flourished, with local universities joining the effort.
Teaching entrepreneurship requires a comprehensive approach that addresses the multi-faceted challenges faced by entrepreneurs
Of the various ways in which universities can empower students to become entrepreneurs, the most basic is through general education courses, an option which all the local institutions provide. In addition, they have developed a wide range of mentorship programmes, seminar series, summer schools, start-up competitions and funding options, each of which addresses specific challenges in helping students and alumni launch their own businesses.
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These efforts have started to pay off. For instance, the launch of an entrepreneurship centre, two mentorship programmes and the E-Challenge competition at HKBU in 2012 coincided with a reversal of the declining trend and an increase in graduate self-employment. This went from 0.9 per cent in 2012 to 1.8 per cent in 2013, although other factors certainly played a part too. Similarly, when CUHK introduced its minor, the Entrepreneurship Week, and three start-up competitions in 2008 and 2009, entrepreneurship rates among undergraduates rose by 55 per cent by 2010.
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There is one caveat, however. While the launch of specific programmes seems to improve self-employment rates in the year following their introduction, they lose impetus and have little long-term impact. Also, most of the support programmes address specific and targeted needs, instead of taking a holistic approach and dealing with the whole ecology of starting up businesses. What’s more, simply teaching students about entrepreneurship will not solve the problem of funding start-ups. And even when you have access to funding, there is still the question of recruiting appropriate mentors to guide new businesses. For budding entrepreneurs, a lot of factors go into creating an environment conducive to continuous growth.
