The Impact of Entrepreneurship Education on the Employability of STEM Graduates: A Randomised Experiment on the Employers' Perspective.

This research explores the impact of entrepreneurship education on graduates' employability. Although the literature suggests that entrepreneurship courses can enhance certain skills that are often lacking among STEM graduates, previous studies in this area have not explored the relationship between graduates' exposure to entrepreneurship and their attractiveness to employers. It is unclear whether employers perceive entrepreneurship education as a positive signal of graduates' quality. To address this gap, a randomized controlled experiment was conducted, where potential employers assessed fictitious CVs of informatic engineering graduates, with the presence of entrepreneurship education manipulated. The study used the MTurk platform, one of the largest online job marketplaces connecting people from all over the world, which gave us access to a wider pool of participants. The experimental vignette (EVM) method was then employed to present participants with realistic scenarios, allowing for the evaluation of intentions, attitudes, and behaviours. Findings indicate that merely attending an entrepreneurship course during one's studies may not consistently enhance the attractiveness of a STEM student to potential employers. However, employability is also influenced by intrinsic qualities of the recruiter, notably their educational background. Recruiters possessing higher levels of education tend to assign greater significance to the inclusion of an EE course in a STEM student's curriculum vitae. Specifically, these recruiters tend to give a higher rating to skills such as communication and attitude to be proactive, thus increasing the attractiveness of the candidate.