First Results

Students participating in practical entrepreneurship education have higher school motivation

Students participating in practical entrepreneurship education are more motivated to go to school than others. Students with 100 hours or more Company Program-activity score better on intrinsic motivation and school effort compared to those with low activity or none.

The Innovation Clusters for Entrepreneurship Education (ICEE) is a 3-year international research project/policy experiment measuring the impact of the JA Company Programme (CP) in secondary school. Results from the 1st year of study show that students with medium/high CP-activity (defined as 100 hours or more) had significantly higher scores on intrinsic motivation compared to those with low activity or none. Intrinsic motivation refers to behaviour that is driven by internal reward. It indicates the students’ interest and enjoyment of school and working with subjects and schoolwork. Also, students with medium/high CP-activity had significantly higher scores on school effort compared to those with low activity or none. The questions on self-reported efforts asked whether students prioritise schoolwork, how hard they work at given subjects, and the endurance they show when working on them.

There is a close link between motivation and effort, which in turn is connected to learning and academic performance. The decreasing degree of motivation and effort throughout the school years is of concern to both teachers and researchers across Europe. Previous research has not been able to clarify whether entrepreneurship education can have an effect on school motivation, effort, attendance and completion. ICEE attempts to reduce some of the uncertainty in these matters. The field trial in the ICEE project is carried out over two academic years, among students aged between 15 and 20 across five countries (Belgium/Flanders, Estonia, Finland, Italy and Latvia). 

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