The Impact of Entrepreneurship Training and Small Business Experience on Future Entrepreneurial Activity in the UK

This paper considers three basic questions:

• Who gets enterprise training or work experience in small businesses?
• Does this make a difference to future entrepreneurial activity?
• And, does this improve business outcomes?

The first strand considers what types of people get access to enterprise training or gain experience of working in smaller businesses. It aims to help establish whether these experiences are widely available throughout the general population or whether they are confined to specific groups.

The second strand of investigation explicitly questions whether exposure to enterprise training or work experience in smaller businesses has an identifiable impact on the labour market choices that people make subsequently. In short, do people who are exposed to enterprise and smaller business then become more likely to pursue an entrepreneurial career?

The final strand questions whether it can make a difference in terms of identifiable business outcomes.