Comparing Online and Physical Social Entrepreneurship Training: Lessons Learned moving Online

Abstract

[EN] With soft skills such as networking, groupwork and team building being key aspects of entrepreneurship education, the Covid-19 pandemic arguably has had a larger impact than on many other subject areas by the need to switch online. Having run a four day, fully immersive Enterprise School for social enterprise off campus for many years, the Covid-19 pandemic saw a need to move online with a danger of these key aspects being lost. By using the more familiar local area, spreading out the time between sessions and increasing the interactions with guest mentors we were able to mitigate for some of these issues. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of moving online with qualitative feedback from students and staff including some unexpected benefits such as improved accessibility for some students.