A Retrospective Study on the Views of Alumni Entrepreneurs Towards University Enterprise Education and Training

While there have been many studies on entrepreneurship programs using a range of methods from selfefficacy to venture creation, including studies on curricular and extra-curricular activities, what is less prevalent is an attempt to understand retrospectively what activities and experiences have shaped the formation of alumni entrepreneurs from the many activities they potentially could have taken part in during their university career. From the alumni database, we found that over 8,000 described themselves as self-employed (2% of the total). The findings included that Medical and Health Sciences produced the most self-employed per head (3.29%), and only 10% of alumni started their business on graduating with 40% waiting for more than 10 years after. It was also found that 50% had a close relative who had started their own business and that most (66%) of those responding who had created businesses had no entrepreneurship training of any kind while at university. Unsurprisingly, more recent business founders had experienced more enterprise education than older businesses-of those that started a business 1-5 years after graduation, 49% had experienced enterprise education. Despite this, those with enterprise education showed marginally better value and turnovers despite being generally relatively newer companies. The knowledge gained from this study can be useful in targeting resources to activities that are most effective in creating alumni entrepreneurs