Bob Nelson, a Senior Scholar in Residence at the AEL, has been involved in entrepreneurship education at the University of Illinois since 1975. During that time, Nelson has consulted with the International Labor Organization on many occasions to bring entrepreneurship education to developing nations, and, most notably, has planned and implemented a graduate studies program in Entrepreneurship Development in Kenya.
Since its onset in 1990, Nelson’s entrepreneurship initiative has brought UI professors to Kenya to teach three cycles of a Master’s Degree program; the most recent cycle was completed in 2001. Of the 120 Kenyan Master’s Degree recipients, 27 have come to the UI Urbana-Champaign campus to pursue Ph.Ds. in entrepreneurship-related areas.
Nelson coordinated the graduate programs through the UI College of Education and received funding from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). The UNDP feared that the graduates from the Entrepreneurship Development program would abandon teaching to start their own businesses, Nelson explained.
“Our Kenyan graduates did start businesses, but they didn’t leave their teaching jobs because that was their job security,” Nelson said. “They kept their teaching jobs, and got into business partnerships with siblings, cousins or friends. These business experiences informed their teaching of entrepreneurship.”
By teaching young students to become more entrepreneurial, Nelson’s graduates are making an impact on the local business sector.
“In Kenya, it used to be the Asians who controlled the business sector, but more and more local Kenyans have gotten involved,” Nelson said. “The business sector there is more balanced now.”
In addition to his work in Kenya, Nelson has conducted workshops about entrepreneurship in 30 countries – a list that includes Asian, Middle Eastern, African and Baltic countries. During his workshops, Nelson teaches teachers and teacher educators to develop curriculum and integrate entrepreneurship into their academic and vocational programs.
“The primary objective is to develop this enterprise culture,” Nelson explained. “What is different about our view of entrepreneurship is that it isn’t just about starting businesses…You can be entrepreneurial in your personal life, family life, in your community, working in a business as well as owning a business.”
Nelson stressed that he and his team consider entrepreneurial skills to be like life skills needed to become a productive person. It is for that reason that Nelson and his team are trying to have courses in entrepreneurship education to be required curriculum in the countries they visit.
“Unlike the U.S. where we have a decentralized education system, once the government accepts entrepreneurship education in these countries, it will be in every school nationwide,” Nelson said. “That is too difficult to do in the U.S. It is up to the local school districts whether or not to include entrepreneurship, so the course usually comes in as an elective course, if at all.”
Nelson explained that the governments in the countries he visits, especially those in the Middle East, often encourage entrepreneurship, but they do not quite understand the obstacles.
“Government officials and affiliates have a lot of faith in entrepreneurship but they don’t realize how difficult it really is to implement a new curriculum or how to start and run a business,” Nelson said.
Nelson noted that many of the agricultural societies he has visited are moving toward a more business orientation, but that they cannot do so without proper training. In addition, many people in these areas start businesses for subsistence purposes and, therefore, do not create many jobs for other people.
“In most of these developing countries, the university graduates are the people who create businesses, which, in turn, create jobs for other people,” Nelson said. “In Ethiopia I taught a teacher preparation course to 27 lecturers from Engineering Departments from seven universities. When we started the course, the lecturers didn’t feel qualified to teach about entrepreneurship, but by the end of the two weeks they felt competent.”
Nelson has also travelled annually to Turin, Italy for the last seven years. There, he runs a two-week workshop about implementing entrepreneurship into educational systems.
“I try to follow-up with people after the workshop and to give them assistance implementing entrepreneurship education at all educational levels,” Nelson said.
Nelson is currently working to develop a two-year A-level course in entrepreneurship for Ugandan students. There are about 70,000 or 80,000 students starting their coursework in February 2012.
To learn more about Bob Nelson’s work regarding international entrepreneurship, check out his bio athttps://business.illinois.edu/ael/about/our_team.html.
