The Start
In June 2022 the University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD) received the Triple E European Entrepreneurial University of the Year Award from ACEEU. Not only did UWSTD introduce Entrepreneurship Education to Wales, but it has led the drive to develop an entrepreneurial culture both nationally and internationally. It continues to do so through its pioneering approach to sustainability with both the EntreComp Framework and its innovative formulation of the concept of Harmonious Entrepreneurship. The story of how it achieved this award dates back 40 years to the early 1980s.
At that time, inward investment was the economic development strategy favoured by the Welsh Development Agency who were successful in attracting Foreign Direct investment, mainly from the USA and Japan, and mainly along the route of the M4 corridor linking South Wales with London. However, in north and mid Wales and the mining valleys of South Wales, there was severe unemployment. Graduate unemployment was at record levels and the participation of women in the workforce was low, especially in rural mid Wales. So, staff at the country’s oldest Higher Education institution, now the Lampeter campus of UWTSD, began to offer extra-curricular entrepreneurship training courses for SMEs, the unemployed, women and students. These were highly successful and eventually Entrepreneurship Education was introduced both to the Lampeter degree portfolio and to other HE institutions in Wales. With the mergers in 2010 (with Trinity College Carmarthen) and 2013 (with Swansea Metropolitan University) the entrepreneurship centre of gravity shifted south, focusing more on Carmarthen and Swansea. In particular at Carmarthen Business School entrepreneurship developed into a key aspect of the School’s degree programmes, and is “ core to our values and informs our mission to transform education and to transform lives” (Interim Dean of the Institute of Education and Humanities).
A Growing Reputation
In 2007-2011 Swansea Metropolitan University (SMU) led the enterprise and entrepreneurship work of the Higher Education Academy2, which culminated in their proposal that the UK needed a robust quality of education approach to learning. In 2012 and chaired by SMU, this was realised as the UK’s national guidance, through the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) for Higher Education. Shortly after, SMU was incorporated into UWTSD and in 2014 the International Institute for Creative Entrepreneurial Development (IICED) was launched. This was based on the research, teaching and consultancy of the Faculty of Art and Design at SMU. IICED’s first action was to organise an International Summit of Entrepreneurial Educators (See: https://www.uwtsd.ac.uk/iiced/practice-into-policy/), which attracted delegates from 32 countries, as well as senior representatives from the EU, Commonwealth and UN. Visiting Professors were appointed to support the Centre’s research activities and to help develop and inform new initiatives (See: https://www.uwtsd.ac.uk/iiced/iiced-team).
By 2015 its work was referenced in several EU and OECD policy and practice documents, and culminated in involvement in the EU Joint Research Centre’s work on developing a European entrepreneurial competency framework, which drew directly from the work with the QAA. EntreComp, as it is now known, has become the ‘de facto’ guidance for European Citizens. Following the UK launch of EntreComp at UWTSD, it was adopted by Enterprise Educators UK, and was subsequently incorporated into the 2018 quinquennial review and associated publications. EntreComp has also been used by the Government Sector Skills body SFEDI / IOEE to benchmark progress in entrepreneurial learning in over 60 UK prisons.
Subsequently the IICED won and supported several bids to develop entrepreneurial educators across Europe, and in the UK the award - winning SetSquared engaged it to help develop and deliver a programme for Post Docs and researchers, while it led both curriculum development and associated teacher training in North Macedonia, developing insights and strategies that contributed to the planning of a new curriculum in Wales. (See: Penaluna, Penaluna and Polenakovikj, 2020).
Its ‘pro poor’ policy work with the UN contributed to the development of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and this, in turn, linked IICED’s work to issues pertaining to sustainability. By 2018 this became more overt and led to an advisory role on the development of a new version of the U.K. Quality Assurance Agency’s (QAA) Education for Sustainable Development, published in 2021. The alignment did not go unnoticed, as reported in the July edition of the Journal ‘Sustainability’, which acknowledged “The University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD) is a leader in the development of entrepreneurial education in teacher education both in Wales and internationally”. (Jónsdóttir and Weicht, 2021, 8574).
International leadership
By 2018/19, UWTSD had become the top university in Wales and ninth in the UK for the number of businesses started by its graduates during the year. These graduate-led businesses are top in Wales and 1st in the UK for graduate start-ups active after three years. The University’s Institute of Sustainable Practice, Innovation and Resource Effectiveness (INSPIRE) is an integral part of this success. It offers a range of support for fledgling businesses, many of which are inspired by, and designed in collaboration with, the University’s entrepreneurial alumni. Supported by the Welsh Government and their Big Ideas Wales initiative, it is a powerful mix.
The IICED continues to have influence, and was a major contributor to the European ‘Intrinsic’ project. This focussed on the combination of sustainable thinking and entrepreneurial endeavour in the domain of the Life Sciences, and draws heavily on IICED research (See Jones, Penaluna and Penaluna, 2019). Thus it has become an acknowledged world leader in developing future-proof types of education that help learners to succeed. According to the Yves Punie EU Joint Research Centre (2016)
“UWTSD’s IICED is widely recognised as one of the world’s foremost institutions in creativity - based entrepreneurship education. IICED has not only been active in advising the UK government in the field of entrepreneurship education but its publications have also been leading discussions at an international level.”.
UWTSD was also a lead partner in EntreCompEdu an Erasmus+ 6 country project to support educators to teach entrepreneurial competences effectively and in 2021 Dafen Primary School in Llanelli, where it introduced the project, was awarded the status of the first Global EntreCompEdu Pioneer School.
Having created the Harmonious Entrepreneurship Society (HES) in Global Entrepreneurship Week 2020 to promote and implement an innovative new concept based on research by Kirby and El-Kaffass (2021) it created Harmonious Entrepreneurship Ltd as a spin out of the University, based on its Carmarthen campus. This integrates or harmonises the traditional economic, eco, humane and social approaches to entrepreneurship in order to address the Sustainability Challenge and in the academic 21/22 it beta tested an online Harmonious Entrepreneurship competition between students of UWTSD and the University of Malayia-Wales3.
The Future
While the IICED and the HES (https://harmonious-entrepreneurship.org/) will continue to contribute, both nationally and internationally, to the development of entrepreneurship through their research contributions, they will also contribute more locally to the domestic enterprise agenda through the application of their research and teaching. Unlike 40 years ago, the Welsh Government is supportive of Entrepreneurship. At the same time, it is keen to address the Sustainability Challenge and for the country to become a world leading Circular economy. Accordingly, the University plans to work even more closely with the Government and the various private and public-sector bodies that constitute the country’s entrepreneurship ecosystem to promote an enterprise culture and the creation of indigenous Harmonious Enterprises and Communities. These will help grow the economy and address the problems of urban and rural deprivation that still exist, thereby helping ensure the wellbeing of future generations.
Change is never easy. It takes time, though perhaps not 40 years, patience and determination, but it can be done. When it is done, there are benefits for the University, its students and both the economy and society. These days there is much more awareness and support than previously, including the work of ACEEU. Is your institution using it?
Notes
1. A fuller account, with illustrative cases, is provided by Kirby, D. A., Penaluna, K., and Healey-Benson F., (2022), Forty Years of Entrepreneurship Education:UWTSD. The South Wales Business Review. 9, 1. 1-25.
2. The Higher Education Academy, renamed Advanced HE, promotes excellence in UK higher education.
3. A Global Competition will be launched in the academic year 22/23.
HRH The Prince of Wales, Juniper, T., and Skelly, I., (2010), Harmony: a new way of looking at our world. London: HarperCollins.
Jones, C., Penaluna, K., and Penaluna A,, (2019), The promise of andragogy, heutagogy and academagogy to enterprise and entrepreneurship. Education+Training, 61(9), 1170-1186.
Jónsdóttir and Weicht (2021) Education for Social Change: The Case of Teacher Education in Wales. Sustainability 2021, 13(15),8574; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13158574
Kirby, D.A. and El-Kaffass, I. (2021), Harmonious entrepreneurship- a new approach to the challenge of global sustainability The World Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development.17(4), 846-855. First online 12th July.(https://doi.org/10.1108/WJEMSD-09-2020-0126)
Penaluna, A, Penaluna, K and Polenakovik, R (2020), ‘Developing entrepreneurial education in national school curricula: lessons from North Macedonia and Wales’, Entrepreneurship Education. 3: 245-263 Available on-line, https://doi.org/10.1007/s41959-020-00038-0
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