Latest news: Entrepreneurship 'vital' for graduate careers

One industry expert believes graduates need to have combined enterprise education and academic skills to stand them in good stead for the future. 11/05/2012

Graduates should be able to take advantage of enterprise education so they can start successful ventures and have profitable ideas after leaving university.

That is according to Caroline Usei from Swansea Metropolitan University, who wrote in the Guardian that more higher education institutes should make entrepreneurial training a bigger priority in all courses, not just business.

She explained that universities should aim to integrate enterprise education into academic activity, as this will improve students’ skill set without them having to make any extra effort. By making it exclusively an extra-curricular activity, many will miss out on developing valuable skills because they do not have the time outside of university.

In addition, Ms Usei noted having these skills when students leave university will make it easier for them to start their own ventures. 

She went on to state that entrepreneurial skills in prospective employees are treasured by employers in today’s competitive job market.

‘It is not about turning academics or students into business people but about helping them look at life through entrepreneurial eyes,’ she said, adding, ‘From an employer’s perspective, if you have two graduates standing in front of you and one of them has just got a degree and the other one has got a degree but also has all these (entrepreneurial) skills, it's obvious which one the employer will choose.’