LAHORE SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS

Vocational education and evidence of entrepreneurship

Literature review

Submitted by: Babar Khan Maisa Khan Bilal Khan Anum Hashmi Madiha Latif

This literature review is prepared to fullfill the course requirement of Entrepreneurship of BBA (honors) at Lahore School of Economics

Vocational Education and Evidence of Entrepreneurship Education in Punjab Vocational Training Council
Article reviewed Vocational Education and Evidence of Entrepreneurship Education in Punjab Vocational Training Council is written by Iqbal M. Khan and Tahseen Mahmood. Khan is a senior faculty in Lahore School of Economics and he is adept in the field of entrepreneurship. Tahseen Mahmood is an assistant professor in technology education at Punjab University. Researched was aimed to explore the prospects of teaching entrepreneurship education to those who acquire vocational skills at Punjab Vocational Training Council (PVTC). It was also to explore whether PVTC has promoted entrepreneurship trough its vocational training institutes located all over Punjab and last but not the least, to explore how well PVTC is cashing out the concept of utilization of Zakat. The objective of research has been to measure the performance of PVTC. It has also been to record the successes of this model of a public-private ownership, a model of utilizing the Zakaat to fund education projects, a value based organization, a learning organization and a highly innovative institution. The other objective is to explore the evidence of entrepreneurship education and its effectiveness in PVTC. The research methodology adopted for this paper is qualitative. The primary data has been collected through semi-structured intensive interviews from the students who are acquiring technical education in vocational training institutes, their parents, instructors, management, and policy makers. Besides; focus groups of all the stake holders were conducted to get the deep insight of the institution. The focus of research is phenomenological in paradigm. This means researcher is a part of the study and he is directly involved in the research. Philosophically the ontology of the study is that researchers have an interaction with the environment which is being studied. To achieve the objectives of the research; paper is further segmented into three segments. 1. The first segment answers the questions i.e.: Can Entrepreneurship be evolved through the program initiated by PVTC and be considered sustainable. to answer this case studies from different parts of the globe have been cited to provide with evidence that

entrepreneurship can be promoted through entrepreneurship education. Different countries after realizing the importance of entrepreneurship have made entrepreneurship education as an essential part of their curriculum through reforming their education policy. In countries such as UK it is a constitutional obligation for schools to provide the practical learning to their students. Case studies show that there are countries which havent yet made entrepreneurship education the part of their curriculum; but they have emphasized on practical education. These case studies provide enough evidence that entrepreneurship can be promoted through entrepreneurship education. Article than evaluates the missions, objectives, and achievements of PVTC to see that how much they have been successful in penetrating the entrepreneur skills into their students. 2. The second question answers the question i.e.: What kind of educational program would PVTC have to adopt for the promotion of entrepreneurship among the Vocationally Trained. To answer this question the authors have actually quoted the examples from different case studies and have cited different interviews of teachers, management, and the policy makers to witness and observe that how they are collectively enduring these skills among their students. They also mentioned the training process and the courses that they are offering in their institutions all over Punjab. And besides that, what more courses should be offered in this regard.

3. The third segment answers the question i.e.: Can a model of utilization of Zakaat be developed for being used by institution for development of entrepreneurs and tradesmen produced by VTIs. To answer this question the authors have actually explained the philosophy behind Zakat that is, to help the poor and needy people of the society. They have explained the utilization of Zakat in the PVTC and have also explained the process of utilization that it has to be in accordance to the interpretation of the transaction and is known as Tamleeq-(the legitimate transfer of ownership). The purpose is to eliminate poverty by encouraging people to be self employed. After providing the entire evidences article concludes that there is a lack of research on vocational training and entrepreneurship education. So this research endeavored to add

literature on vocational training and entrepreneurship education. The study also explains the concept and philosophy of Zakaat. They further said that Teaching approaches appear to be incorporate and VTI lectures do not appear to have relevant entrepreneurial skills, knowledge or training. There are serious short comings in the VTI curriculums and absolutely no entrepreneurship education within PVTC. Hence PVTC would now need a serious capacity enhancement to meet the need of entrepreneurship education and its pedagogy. If the curriculum is now designed and upgraded to the contemporary requirement, this program will be consider sustainable. They also suggested that a research is required for entrepreneurial curriculum development and training of teaching methodologies to PVTCs instructors, students and practitioners.

Entrepreneurship and Vocational Education

The paper reviewed Entrepreneurship and Vocational Education is written by JeroenOnstenk and was published in 2003. The researcher works at Centre for the Innovation of Education and Training (CINOP) in Netherlands. Most of his research topics revolve around vocational training. This particular research focuses on entrepreneurship and vocational training which is commissioned by the Dutch ministry of Economic Affairs and both, the students and the teachers, were taken into account for the purpose of this research. Entrepreneurship and enterprising behaviour enjoys a prominent place in the policies by the European Union. It is seen as a way to of creating more jobs, for the purpose of individual development, and a source of innovation. The research discusses three main entrepreneurship themes. The first being enterprising key skills, followed by entrepreneur as manager, and lastly entrepreneur as entrepreneur. The first theme, enterprising key skills, suggested number of entrepreneurial qualities of a person, such as motivation, need of autonomy, searching for opportunity, self-confidence, taking initiative, risk taking, and internal locus of control, and argued that not everybody has entrepreneurial capabilities and thus the subject entrepreneur needs to be taught in schools.

Reason put forward in the paper is that that even if not everyone becomes entrepreneur then still this subject would help the people in better employability and active citizenship. The second theme discussed is Entrepreneur as manager. This topic discusses the traditional role of an entrepreneur as a manager which includes activities such as planning, organising, managing, leading, and controlling. The medium entrepreneurial education in 1990s was a certificate from General Entrepreneurial Skills (GES) which was necessary for a person to have in Netherland to start his or her own business. Later Tolentino in 1998 added to the list of traditional managing activities done by an entrepreneur and included activities such as eye for opportunity, global business environment, constant alertness to market and technological change, but still this section is not yet extensively covered by researchers. The third theme as stated by the research is regarding the role of an entrepreneur as an entrepreneur. Some competencies are discussed in these sections which are needed in order to start an enterprise. The first competency is the ability to recognise and analyse market opportunity and to act on them. The second competency is related to the ability to identify the target customers and to communicate your product clearly. The entrepreneur needs to be socially responsible and he/she should look after the environment. The third competency discusses is the ability of the entrepreneur to expand its network and create linkage between stake holders and other business persons. This will not only increase the quality standard but also keep the entrepreneur aware of changing trends. The fourth competency as suggested by the research is that the entrepreneur needs to draw a line between his work and his off-work life and enjoy both of them with their disadvantages. The fifth competency is the ability of the entrepreneur to develop a competent single minded team which would lead the created organization. The research then talks about entrepreneurship in vocation and higher education in Netherlands. Its state that entrepreneurship education has been there in the past but not taught in depth. In order to develop core competencies needed by an entrepreneur, the students need to be put through real life activities, competitions, lectures given by real entrepreneurs since real activities are stimulating for participants rather than book study. The research gives an example of a competition held in 2002 in Netherlands in which 3500 students and 250 schools participated. This competition offered further advancement in entrepreneurial education which were launched by major banks and further by Dutch accountants society and Ministry of

Economic affairs. Another society named as Youth Enterprise Europe also carried out activity based entrepreneur education and later through research carried out in Netherlands it was suggested that those students who participated in such activities developed a set of different skills which were needed to become an entrepreneur and in order to build teams. In higher education, previously the trend was towards teaching of managerial studies, but later focus started to shift towards entrepreneurial studies, with courses like Small Business and Retail Management provided in Saxion College. This course focused more towards problem solving with realistic examples using internet, group discussions, etc. thus providing a feeling of mini enterprise to the students. This course was so successful that it lead to many students opening their own enterprise. The research then focuses on the students and the teacher which were participants of the research. A total of 308 students participated in the research and belonged from different Dutch secondary, vocational and higher educational schools. The students gave a very diverse view of entrepreneurship. Although most of them were interested in the subject and in opening up their own business, still there were questions in their minds regarding the initial financial requirement in starting up of the business, low market share possibility, but they liked the idea of being their own boss and the chance of taking decisions and risks. Regarding the level of education the students responded with lack of research and focus regarding this sector and encouraged the use of activity based tuition for this subject rather than theoretical. 25 teachers also participated in this research. The teachers chosen taught the course of entrepreneurship. The key skills considered by the teachers which needed to be developed were perseverance, initiative, good communication skills, flexibility, creative thinking, and ability to take decisions and majority of teachers considered activity based medium the right medium for the teaching of this entrepreneurship studies. Lastly the research gives conclusions and policy recommendations which included the expansion of entrepreneurial courses with addition of more courses and more integration with managerial courses. The second recommendation it gave was regarding the development of innovative and competence oriented education which included real life examples and discussions, competitions etc. The third suggestion given by the researcher is the practical experience as the mode of learning which gives the student the real knowhow of how a company

operates, and the last suggestion was the integration of entrepreneurial education from the very start of education to the very end of it , that is, throughout the lifetime of a person.