Starting up STEMs – Entrepreneurship for science students
Supporting KIC's
Domain: Domain 4 – Enhancing the quality of innovation and entrepreneurial education.
Action: Develop or improve innovation & entrepreneurial curricula
In order to optimally prepare students for entry into professional life, they should be educated in such a way that, in addition to their respective main subject, they are also equipped with an awareness of Economy 4.0 and lifelong learning beyond their subject boundaries (see e.g. Key Competences of the European Council, comments by Hauser, Gartner or Wutscher).
Therefore, students learn the classification and essential basic concepts of business administration and contract and business law. They are able to explain terms, structure and instruments of business management and to explain associated legal terms and principles in the area of contracts, forms of business and other selected areas of law and to analyse these in relation to the overarching context of sustainability and ethical-social compatibility.
Students learn to classify issues in relation to their economic and legal significance and to identify and describe fundamental business and legal problems of economic action and thinking and to question these in relation to sustainability and ethically and socially guided economic activity. In doing so, the three teachers have to cover defined contents:
Tab. 1: Contents per semester
| Semester A | LE | |||
| Teambuilding – with Lego® Serious Play® | 4 | |||
| Leadership & Organisation | 4 | |||
| Business plan, business idea development – with Lego® Serious Play®. | 4 | |||
| Operational performance process (procurement, storage, production) | 4 | |||
| Entrepreneurship | 5 | |||
| Marketing & Sales | 4 | |||
| Operational accounting and financial accounting | 4 | |||
| Cost accounting and financing | 4 | |||
| Business Management for Sustainability | 5 | |||
| Big Data, AI, Ideas & Innovation | 5 | |||
| Exam (Moodle Test) | 2 | |||
| Total | 45 | 3 SWS | ||
| Semester B | ||||
| Business Administration Topics for Entrepreneurs (focus on business plan) | 4 | |||
| Business Plan and Strategic Business Instruments | 7 | |||
| Investment appraisal (static and dynamic models incl. case studies) | 4 | |||
| Legal basis for founders | 3 | |||
| Coaching/ Feedback Business plans Group work | 2 | |||
| Poster presentation | 8 | |||
| Exam (Moodle Test) | 2 | |||
| Total | 30 | 2 SWS | ||
Essential business management content is taught so that students in STEM programmes also learn how companies are fundamentally organised in their processes and structures. The focus is on getting to know the service creation process through an economically successful combination of production and service, including all supporting operational functions.
The entrepreneurial value proposition to the customer is already at the centre of the planning of a marketable service. The business plan defines the performance characteristics that subsequently affect the parameters of the entire value chain. In the operational functions involved (purchasing, transport, storage, production and distribution), the planned quantities and prices of the respective input and output factors are calculated on the basis of the defined specification.
The knowledge acquired is applied in case studies and, above all, in the virtual start-up chosen by the students themselves. In this way, the necessary business administration know-how that goes beyond the subject-specific knowledge is acquired at an early stage in order to create ideal conditions for start-ups.
Context
This type of business education fills a knowledge gap many STEM-program graduates suffer and shows how science students can acquire the necessary basics that allow them to make smart(er) business decisions and that provide them with background information that helps them if they later in life decide to become self-employed.
Audiences
Enhancing the quality of innovation and entrepreneurial education benefits in a first step the students and the universities, but ultimately, we are challenging the students’ view of the working world. We show them alternatives to standard business behavior and thus also respond to a broader societal need for more innovation and a more sustainable business environment.
Key outcomes
Essential business management content is taught to students in STEM programmes with a hands-on, project-oriented approach. They learn about entrepreneurial value propositions and plan a potentially marketable product/service through means of a business plan that focuses on sustainability and principles of circularity, characteristics that subsequently affect the parameters of the entire value chain.
The business administration basis also includes questioning the conventional economy and examining topics such as the ‘circular economy’, ‘big data’ and ‘AI’ and their impact on how we (can) do business. They learn to question classical approaches and to apply them to a future-oriented form of business.
The knowledge acquired is applied in case studies and, above all, in the virtual start-up chosen by the students themselves. In this way, the necessary business administration know-how that goes beyond the subject-specific knowledge is acquired at an early stage in order to create ideal conditions for start-ups.
Key success factors / How to replicate / Sustainability mechanism
It is about inspiring students to become interested in entrepreneurial processes, it is about showing them concrete benefits for themselves.
Including social skills and team building through Lego®SeriousPlay® (LSP) method was challenging. It was not clear whether the students, who are used to building models anyway, could free themselves from technological limits and regularities of raw materials, shapes and so on. In the end, it was admirable that over 100 ideas were developed by a group of about 25 students in three hours. The method enables the students to direct their thinking directly into their hands or to develop thoughts by touching them. This method can promote creativity and innovation in the classroom. What is important here is the open-mindedness of the group and the structure provided on the part of the lecturer.
Moreover, it is helpful to engage in a form of teaching that allows students to relate these principles through products and services the students are interested in, something that can relate to the students’ personal lives. To let them choose a business idea, which is then developed along the state of the art has a central effect on the interest in the applicability and usefulness of the business administration instruments that are taught. There is a large pool of appropriate narratives on the respective current topic, which make complex issues more tangible. The approach allows weaving in current economic topics (energy price trends, shortage of skilled workers, etc.) to present business concepts in a more comprehensible way. Monitoring the business plans requires a higher number of feedback loops for some groups, but this results in better learning effects for students and higher quality learning outcomes. This approach is highly engaging, but more time-consuming than a traditional business administration course.
And so, over the course of an academic year, virtual start-up ideas emerge from quite classic, profit-oriented business ideas that are designed to be economically and ecologically sustainable. Even if the students do not immediately move into self-employment with their ideas the mental seed for entrepreneurship has been sowed and the barriers for entrepreneurial action is lowered.