EPIC in Action, Measuring Entrepreneurial Competencies in Higher Education

Abstract

[EN] Increasingly university programmes are introducing a range of experiential learning based programmes to support students to develop their entrepreneurial competencies during their time at university. This paper describes how the University of Galway is utilising the Entrepreneurial Potential and Innovation Competences Tool (EPIC) to track the changes in student self-reported competencies having participated in one of its flagship student entrepreneurial programmes. Based in Ideaslab, the university’s Human Centre Design Studio, the approach used is experiential, design centric and informed by D.School, Stanford. Initial findings from the EPIC surveys completed by 23 students are reported. These data are part of a university wide initiative and further data will be collected over the next three semesters. In so doing, we hope to add to the body of knowledge concerning the utility of this approach to measuring the changes in entrepreneurial competencies following participating in a university based entrepreneurial learning activity.