With a plethora of new ideas, innovations, skills and opportunities, entrepreneurship has become a new trend in employment across the world. It is a good way to alleviate the pressure on employment. Entrepreneurship can improve economic efficiency, bring market innovation, increase employment opportunities and maintain employment levels (Shane, & Venkataraman,2000). Keeping this in mind, in the recent years, universities now focus their attention to promote entrepreneurship through education so as to instill motivation, confidence, interest and inspiration in students with such intentions.
Entrepreneurship education program is usually defined as a process of providing individuals with the ability to recognize commercial opportunities and the knowledge, skills and attitudes to act on them (Jones and English, 2004, p.416).
Apart from professional skills and knowledge, entrepreneurship education can foster entrepreneurial aptitudes in every individual, and also create awareness about the benefits of entrepreneurship in the society at large. Therefore, universities have been encouraged to provide more substantial impact on developing and stimulating entrepreneurial knowledge, skills, attitudes and values through their programs.
There is a quote by Albert Bandura, “In order to succeed, people need a sense of self-efficacy, to struggle together with resilience to meet the inevitable obstacles and inequities of life.”
Self-efficacy, or self-confidence, in a given domain, is based on individuals’ self perceptions of their skills and abilities (Wilson. F, et al, 2007). This concept reflects an individual’s innermost thoughts on whether they have the abilities perceived as important to task performance, as well as belief that they will be able to effectively convert those skills
References: 1. Bandura, A. (1997). “Self-efficacy: The exercise of control”, Worth Publishers 2 3. Boyd, N. and G. Vozikis (1994). "The Influence of Self-Efficacy on the Development of Entrepreneurial Intentions and Actions." Entrepreneurship: theory and practice 18(4). 4. Brockner, J.,Higgins, E.T. and Low, M.B. (2004). “Regulatory Focus Theory and the Entrepreneurial Process, Journal of Business Venturing”, 19 (2), 203-220. 5. Cox L., Mueller S., and Moss, S. (2002). “The impact of entrepreneurial education on entrepreneurial self-efficacy.” International journal of Entrepreneurship Education, 1,2. 6 7. Fayolle, A., Gailly, B. and Lassas-Clerc, N. (2006). “Effect and counter-effect of Entrepreneurship Education and Social Context on Student’s Intentions.” Estudios de Economia Aplicada, 24 (2), 509-523. 8. Filion L.J. (1994). “Ten steps to entrepreneurial teaching.” Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship. 11(3), 68-78. 9. Gasse, Y (1985). “A Strategy for the promotion and identification of potential entrepreneurs at the secondary school level.” Paper at the Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, Babson College, Wellesley, MA. 10 11. Jones, C.; English, J. (2004). “A contemporary approach to entrepreneurship education. Education and Training” 46 (8/9), 416-423. 12. Logan J. (2013) “Entrepreneurship 101”, Cass Business School, UK. 13. Maslow, A. (1954). "Motivation and personality." New York: Harper&Brothers 14 15. McGee, J., M. Peterson, et al. (2009). "Entrepreneurial Self Efficacy: Refining the Measure.” Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 33(4): 965-988. 16. Shane S. and Venkataraman S. (2000), “The promise of Entrepreneurship as a field of research.” Academy of Management 25, no. 1: 217-26. 17. Wilson F., Kickul J., and Marlino D. (2007). “Gender, Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy, and Entrepreneurial Career Intentions: Implications for Entrepreneurship Education”