Entrepreneurship Education Proposals

Posted: 12 December, 2022

More than €1m has been awarded by the Higher Education Authority to fund proposals from higher education institutions across Ireland around Entrepreneurship Education.

The funding will be allocated between two separate initiatives – Entrepreneurship Education Initiatives and Student Entrepreneurship Programmes.

Following a call for proposals in September of 2022, a total of €1,024,250 has been made available to the successful applicants.

Funding will be allocated to UCC, DCU, UL, RCSI and TU Dublin under the first strand – ‘Entrepreneurship Education Initiatives’. These projects focus on how enhancement/expansion of current entrepreneurship education within the institutions could be facilitated.

Higher education institutions to receive funding under Strand 2 include IADT, University of Galway, MTU, UCC. SETU, TU Dublin and ATU. Strand 2 funding – ‘Student Entrepreneurship Programmes’ – focus on how proposed initiatives will support participants to obtain entrepreneurial skills.

Dr Vivienne Patterson, Head of Skills and Engagement at the HEA said:

“Initiatives supporting entrepreneurship education are a direct response to the skill needs of enterprise and also provide learners with the skills to build their own businesses”. 

Among the initiatives that will receive funding includes one dealing with ‘Intersectional Entrepreneurs’, which aims to target cohorts for whom the concept and practice of entrepreneurship may seem inaccessible, unattainable or risky, or who may not consider it appropriate to them.

Another project will focus on ‘Refugee Entrepreneurship’, which will include asylum seekers and other migrants who wish to be self-employed.

The Skills and Engagement section of the HEA engaged international experts to assess all of the submissions received under the call.