Examining project based entrepreneurship and engineering design course professional skills outcomes

Design and entrepreneurship education have emerged as platforms for exposing students to 'real-world' project experiences, instilling skills to succeed in the professional market. Both entrepreneurship and design education share similar project-based, active learning pedagogies and claim to cultivate similar 21st century professional skills; however, minimal work has been conducted examining specific student professional outcomes in both entrepreneurship and design courses. Using pre-post survey data, our study explores the impact of two classes, entrepreneurship and biomedical engineering (BME) design, on students' perceived learning gains in three professional skills: Risk-Taking, Creative Self- Efficacy and Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy (ESE). Results indicated that Entrepreneurship course students reported significant increases in Creative Self-Efficacy and ESE. BME design course students reported minor improvement in certain aspects of ESE. Neither course significantly impacted students' perceived Risk-Taking ability. These results indicate that while design and entrepreneurship courses share content and pedagogy, they have a differing impact on students' perceived skills. We explicate key differences between the courses and their impact on perceived professional skills, examining why design and entrepreneurship education may be unique and how students may benefit from both.