University training for entrepreneurship: Swedish approaches

Abstract

Empirical research in Sweden on business venturing suggests that qualified experience and social skills are more crucial to success than formal education. Adopting an action perspective on entrepreneurship, a framework for identifying competences needed for an entrepreneurial career is provided. It is argued that entrepreneurial training calls for a contextual approach, implying, for example, that the social resources included in the personal network will supplement personal and organizational resources. Within such an entrepreneurial-learning framework, different Swedish academic programmes aiming at enforcing or supplementing management skills in small firms are presented. The reported courses include a MBA-programme with internship and training programmes for established entrepreneurs. Implications of the Swedish experiences for career management, the general school system and the re-training of management for entrepreneurial initiative are discussed.