About the SKO project
Enterprise education gains increasing attention especially in higher education institutions. However, little is known on best practices and pedagogical implications of enterprise education at the program and course level at higher educational institutions. By this is implied how and where students learn best certain enterprise skills and how it can be assessed in constructive manner. This report takes up the perspective and explores, a] the possibilities for practice driven enterprise education in the International Bachelor in Business Administration (IBA) of the University of Twente, and b] provide recommendations for revising enterprise education in this program. It does so by applying a Constructive Alignment (CA) approach.
Methodologically, this report draws on in-depth interviews with seven business managers of six businesses to identify which enterprise skills matter most to them and in which business functions they apply. After that, the extended CA approach is deployed in a focus group session with multiple stakeholders using World Café principles to guide the research process and stimulate active participation. Multiple stakeholders, including business practitioners, students, educators, educational specialists, program managers and skill coordinators participated in this focus group session. This resulted into a set of valuable insights regarding which learning goals are important, suitable learning environments and effective assessment practices. Based on the findings, recommendations could be provided for revising enterprise education in IBA whilst taking into consideration the managerial challenges of coordinating enterprise education and managing ongoing working relationships with businesses as learning context providers and co-assessors of student achievements. This study also makes some contributions to the body of knowledge interested in best practices and the design of enterprise education at the program and course level.
About me
Dr. Raymond Loohuis is senior lecturer and researcher at the University of Twente where he works for the research group for Entrepreneurship, Strategy & Innovation Management (NIKOS). He teaches courses in the area of business marketing and technology development in various education programs. Besides, he coaches executive professionals with the development of “engaged scholar” research skills at a leading private executive MBA Business School in the Netherlands. His current research focus is on the emergence of servitisation as business strategy and smart industrial technology acceptance and value creation in small & medium sized manufacturing firms. Raymond is reviewer of the Industrial Marketing Management Journal and has presented his work at various leading management conferences, such as AOM and EGOS and published in Research in Management Consulting (IAP) and Researching in the Sociology of Organizations (Emerald).
